The old town photographs beautifully at night. Every guide says so, and every guide is right. But the Hoi An most visitors never see opens at about five in the morning and closes again by nine.
The central market sets up in the dark. By half past five the fish has arrived from Cua Dai and the herb sellers have laid out their bundles on the pavement. Nobody is selling anything to you. That is the point.
Walk the riverfront while it is still grey. The lanterns are off, the boats are being bailed out, and the town is briefly just a town again.
Most day-trippers arrive from Da Nang around ten. If you are staying overnight, you own the first four hours of the day and the last three of the evening.
Hoi An's tailoring is famous and its lantern shops are everywhere. Both are real trades, but the more interesting version is outside the old town — the carpentry workshops in Kim Bong, the pottery kilns at Thanh Ha, the mat weavers who still work by hand.
Cao lau is the dish everyone comes for, and the well-known places do it well. But the noodles most locals eat come from stalls that open for three hours and then close. Ask your guide where they had lunch yesterday.
If a stall has a queue of people in work clothes, join it.
Twenty minutes by bicycle puts you in rice fields. Forty minutes puts you at the coast. An hour puts you at My Son, which deserves a morning rather than a stop.
The lanterns are worth seeing. They are simply not the reason to stay.
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