Hoi an

the bus i took from mai ne ended its journey in a hotel courtyard. the hotel staff were quick to lock the gates to the enterance once the bus drove through itand a dosen hotel staff swarmed around the bus door as everyone got off. A few people barged through the staff and just walked to the enterance at the other side of the building and left while others walked to the rooms with the staff. I talked to one of the staff about prices but then walked out to take a look round the area. The prices for that hotel were reasonable but I was unsure about the location. The bus companies often have deals with hotels that are in a bad location to boost the hotel buissness. I took a walk in a random direction and ended up in the old town.It seemed the hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the main tourist location. I asked a few other hotels in the tourist area for their prices and the private rooms were cheaper than the hotel i was dropped at. But the hotel I was dropped at seemed to be the only one with a dorm room. I ended up staying at the origional hotel as the dorm room was about 5 dollars cheaper than any price i had been offered anywhere else. A 15 minute walk to the main tourist area was better than spending the extra money to stay inthe tourist area.
The tourist area is an old harbour town that was full of 300 year old buildings, It felt like europe other than the temples that were scattered about along with the japanise bridge. It was nice to walk through but it seemed that every building other than the temples were used to sellcheap suits/dresses, paintings or coffee and food. When you werent looking at temples the only other thing to do was eat or shop for generic tourist merch. I struggle with this. I need stuff to do and if i dont have stuff to do i go and get something to eat.I'm trying to stick to a budget but its quite hard to do this when you have a big wad of cash in your pocket. I was slightly annoyed because i blew nearly 5 quid at a resteraunt in one meal, It was still super cheap compared to european prices but it was pricey for vietnam.I had noodles, soup, two big bottles of beer (big bottles of reasonably good beer are like 30p in cheap bars but go to about one pound in posh places) and ice cream.
I took a bike ride around the town and area and biked past a local rat hunt. a bunch of locals were cutting grass and catching and killing rats. it was one guys job to de-tail them.