Today we drove south to the tourist town of Hoi An. A rest stop at Phu Loc on the Cau Hai Lagoon gave us an opportunity to photograph some interesting fishing nets.

A bit farther south we climbed through The Hai Van Pass an impressive piece of mountain road given wide exposure by the Top Gear Episode - Vietnam MotorBike Special

For locals in more of a hurry than us tourists there is now a tunnel complex over 6km long which bypasses the mountain road by going straight though the base of the mountain range.

Just south of Hai Van is the city of Da Nang. The name is well known to Australians of my generation from the days of the Vietnam War as it was the gateway for US and Australian forces into Vietnam.

According to our guide it has a population of about 1.5 million and is the most desireable place to live for Vietnamese people as very rapid development is providing plentiful jobs. The pace of development is visible everywhere in the city with many new large hotels recently constructed and still under construction on the beach front.

Tourist development is evident along the beachfront south of Da Nang all the way to our destination of Hoi An, which during peak tourist season is reputed to have more tourists than than locals.

We are staying at the Boutique Hoi An Resort on the beach front about 7km from downtown Hoi An a world heritage listed site