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and seventeenth centuries. The work of one famous community of wood-carvers, from Kim Bong Village on Cam Kim Island, can be seen throughout Hoi An. Most carpenters have moved out of the village but a handful remain, building fishing boats or crafting furniture for export. This large island is a ten-minute ride from the Hoi An ferry station (see "Around Hoi An") heading west up the river. You’ll find one of the few surviving boatyards right beside the island’s jetty, but it’s worth taking a bike over and exploring the rest of the island. Cam Kim is also a stop on the boat trip back from My Son (see "My Son").

The central provinces | Hoi An and around | Around Hoi An |

The Cham Islands

A group of mountainous islands lying 10km offshore is clearly visible from the coast near Hoi An. Cu Lao Cham, or the Cham Islands, are inhabited by fishermen, the navy and collectors of highly prized birds’ nests. Cham islanders have been harvesting sea swallows’ nests since the late sixteenth century and today the government-controlled trade contributes greatly to the local economy, with prices up to $2500 per kilo for the culinary delicacy, to which extraordinary medicinal virtues are also attributed. Each spring, when thousands of the tiny, grey-and-black birds nest among the islands’ caves and crevices, villagers build bamboo scaffolding or climb up ropes to prise the diminutive structures, about the size of a hen’s egg, off the rock. Three thousand people live on the main island, but until 1995 even Vietnamese people weren’t allowed to visit because of the naval base. Recently the island has become popular for its surrounding marine life, with 135 species of coral, 202 species of fish and 84 species of mollusks said to exist around the marine park. Boat trips take an hour each way from Cua Dai Beach, but there are plans for hydrofoil transport that will take just twenty minutes.

Although the development of a beach resort is rumoured, as yet there are no hotels on the islands. However Lodovico, the Italian owner of Cham Island Diving Centre (see "") rents out rooms in his beachside guesthouse (US$21–30). Day-trips can be taken to the island with diving tour operators, starting at $20 for a snorkel trip.

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The central provinces | Hoi An and around | Around Hoi An | The Cham Islands |

Moving on from Hoi An

When it comes to onward transport, the most popular option is to hop on one of the open-tour buses heading north to Da Nang (from $2) and Hué (from $4) – with some services stopping briefly at the Marble Mountains, Hai Van Pass and Lang Co – or south to Nha Trang ($9–16) with stops at Sa Huynh, Song Cau and Dai Lanh. Each of the open-tour operators has an office in Hoi An where you can purchase tickets and make reservations (see "Listings"). While you can buy tickets almost anywhere, it’s best to go to the company direct to ensure it’s valid.

If you’re headed to Da Nang, however, and want to spend longer at the various stops en route – the Marble Mountains, Non Nuoc Beach and the Cham Museum – a better alternative is to take a hired car ($10–15) or xe om (from 100,000đ). Afterwards you can get the driver to drop you at your hotel or at the train station or airport. Hotels and tour agencies in Hoi An will help with the arrangements. Local buses plying between Hoi An and Da Nang are very much a last resort: ancient vehicles, often stuffed to the gunnels, leave Hoi An bus station every half-hour or so, taking up to ninety minutes to cover the 30km (15,000đ; services stop at 5pm).

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The central provinces | Hoi An and around |

My Son

Vietnam’s most evocative Cham site, MY SON (daily 6.30am–4.30pm; 75,000đ), lies 40km southwest of Hoi An, in a bowl of lushly wooded hills towered over by the aptly named Cat’s Tooth Mountain. My Son may be no Vietnamese Angkor Wat, but it is now on UNESCO’s World Heritage list and richly deserves its place on the tourist map. The riot of vegetation that until recently enveloped the site has now largely been cleared away, but the tangible sense of faded majesty still