Hội An is the one old port in Vietnam that was neither flattened by war nor remodelled in concrete, and that is why people tolerate the crowds. The town lies on the Thu Bồn river a short way from the sea, about twenty-five kilometres south of Da Nang. From the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries it was a trading hub where Chinese, Japanese and later European merchants waited for the monsoon winds to turn. They left their marks in the architecture: yellow-walled Chinese assembly halls, narrow merchant houses with wooden beams, and the Japanese Covered Bridge, a small humped span that has become the town's emblem. The silt in the river eventually killed the harbour, and Da Nang took over the shipping. The decline saved the old streets, and UNESCO listed the town in 1999.
The best way to see it is by walking, because the heart of the old quarter is closed to motorbikes for part of the day and can be one-way or restricted in the evening. Park on the edge, lock the helmet, and go in at first light, when shopkeepers are sweeping and the markets are loud with herbs and fish. Cao lầu noodles are the local speciality, with the supposed secret being the water from a particular well, and the little white rose dumplings and the banh mi stalls are worth finding. After dark the lanterns come on and the river fills with paper boats and light.
Getting here from Da Nang is one of the pleasant rides in central Vietnam. The coast road runs south past the Marble Mountains and long beaches at China Beach, with sea air on one side and a tangle of small shops and resorts on the other. Expect heavy traffic, very patient scooters and the occasional sudden turn from a driver who has not looked. Hội An itself has fuel and every kind of food, and the ruined Cham temples at Mỹ Sơn are about forty kilometres inland on a ride that is best done early before the heat.
The wet season runs roughly from September to December, and floods sometimes put the riverside streets under water. February to April is easier.