Hoi An, full day about town

Today we went exploring hotels and guesthouses to compare prices and perhaps find cheaper accommodations. We were somewhat better prepared with directions and the fact that it was daylight made navigating about town easy.
As in every other city so far, as we walked, there were endless numbers of guesthouses and hotels, accommodations for every budget. We checked out several and in doing so also questioned other travellers about where they were staying and what they thought of their hotels. In the end the places recommended by the Lonely Planet guide were the best and spot on in their descriptions. We stopped for a "lassi" which is a fruit, juice and yoghurt smoothie to decide on new accommodations. We chose a charming hotel, reducing our cost from $37/night to $25/night with a breakfast, balcony, wonderful ambience and relaxing atmosphere. We move January 4th. A block away was an Indian restaurant (yep LP) so a reservation for dinner was in order.
We continued our walk heading in the direction of the market and waterfront. Our journey took us to the street where only bicycles and pedestrians are allowed. This section is lined with shop after shop, vendor after vendor soliciting every passerby to come in and buy something. As we look at their goods they are saying, "very cheap, good price", typing numbers on their calculators to show how much each item will cost. As we start heading out the door the prices start dropping eventually being half or less of the starting price. For every corner we turned there was another street of shops. We stopped for a tea on the patio of a quaint bed and breakfast and got information from the hostess about some of the islands and sights in the area. Turns out her sister has a tailor shop. Surprise! After tea we ended up by a beautiful bridge, built by the Japanese, and then by the river.
We were amazed by the charm of the street along the river. Marie took a photo of a model wearing the traditional "Ao Dai" one of the nicest we have seen. Along the river were countless small wooden boats, bobbing in the water, each with tiny, mostly old and weathered looking, Vietnamese women and men calling out, shouting (more so pleading) "you come to my boat"!
Dusk was setting in and across the river was an entire street of shops with lit lanterns glowing and radiating their beauty. Amazing but walking across would have to wait as we were on a mission to locate the tailor shop. We walked to where we were told it was but couldn't find it. We were heading one way and asked somebody where the shop was and they sent us back the other way. Once we walked the other way we still didn't find it so I asked again and that person sent us back to where we just came from, (for a moment made us think we were back in Mexico! LOL) Since it was dark and our reservation at the Indian restaurant was calling us, we decided to give up,hope of finding the shop and instead head for dinner. At least I could retrace my steps to get there, even in the dark. Strange how easily a place will look different at night.
Dinner was fantastic! Naan bread, spicy coconut curry chicken, curried vegetables and rice. Yummy! Two young Aussie girls next to us were entertaining as we all exchanged stories of our travels here and other countries.