Hello everybody, today we took a car journey and arrived in heaven! I am writing this from Hoi An, and I am one happy Kat.

Anyways we left Hue at 10am (late for us!) and hopped into our private car to travel down to Hoi An. Our driver was one of the most careful drivers ever (Auntie Dot would have loved him!) but there was still a fair amount of beeping, even though he rarely hit over 40k an hour. On the way we were to stop at a beach (I can't remember the name and the marble mountains, now we weren't exactly sure where or what each one was, but we happily agreed! The first stop was the beach, which although pretty was not a patch on some of the other beaches around here so we stopped and had a brief paddle before hopping into the car. Now when we were children on car journeys Mum and Dad used to despair of our propensity to jump into the car and stick our noses into books, ignoring their plaintive pleas to look out of the window and enjoy the scenery. Here we have no such trouble, each mile is fascinating, and we have seen the most amazing, yet bizarre things. Today's prize goes to the two people with cows stood at the side of the road. Not so bizarre I hear you thinking, Ok well imagine these people are stood on the backs of their cows (these are real cows by the way!) a little more strange, ok then imagine the full picture, two people, stood on their cows, next to a motorway, each stood on one leg in an elaborate yoga position! Now that's what I call scenery.

We pulled up to the marble mountains and they are literally just that, mountains made from marble which the local people use to make the most elaborate and immense statues, anything you like out of any colour marble. We stopped at a workshop where we saw the marble being carved and then polished (in its natural state it is dull) and they polish it up to its immense shine. We then pulled to the foot of one of these mammoth mountains and the driver pointed to the long, steep staircase and said, 'you climb, one hour!" and promptly ejected us out of the car. Lee said my face was a picture, the limbs just recovered from our amazing Kinnabalu adventure I was less than enthusiastic to journey on upwards. But we had had breakfast that morning (a bizarre occurrence over here!) so we decided we should walk it off and began our journey up the marble mountain. The going was much easier than Kinabalu though the stairs were steep and cut from the marble so were a little slippy and I was wearing a sundress and flip flops. Still at intervals up the mountain there were amazing pagodas and fascinating caves each with shrines to different gods and immense statues, a number of which had their hands arranged in the devil horn 'rock on' gesture!

After the marble mountains it was onto Hoi An, which I think is my spiritual home. Now Toby, my bee-yoo-ti-ful nephew used to have a game where he would ask if different people were happy. Sar, if he asks in the next 4 days tell him Auntie Kat very, very happy (or bappy) as he used to say! We pulled up to our hotel which is a little boutique hotel and we were immediately led to the terrace over a water spinach field and given Vietnamese tea and coffee. The garden is amazingly tranquil and backs onto the jewel of a little pool. To get the back garden you walk through reception, rich with dark woods and beautiful lanterns and over the little wooden bridge over the koi carp pond which joins the lobby to the staircase into our room and to the terrace. We were shortly shown to our room which looks out over the koi pond and is beautiful, decorated with towel sculptures on the bed and fresh flowers. Apart from a quick handwash in KL we have not had chance to wash much so we took advantage of the laundry service and emptied out rucksacks into bags for the laundry service, a bargain at $2 per kilo. Fresh clean clothes will be such a luxury after living out of a rucksack for the last 2 weeks.

After this we headed out to Hoi An, a small beautiful town, the whole of which is protected as a site of environmental protection. It is glorious, silk lanterns of every colour hang from the streets and every other shop is a tailors showing their rich and colourful fabrics and beckoning you in to see their clothes and get something made to measure - in 24 hrs. We walked down to the river through the markets, the roads here are much calmer than Hanoi, but the bikes still insist on joining the single file path at the market! The market is immense with food, smells and sights of every kinds, the colours are vibrant, and the senses get distracted at pretty much every turn. We headed through the old streets (the merchants houses are protected and have been turned into museums) and we headed to the river which was also decorated beautiful with lanterns and statues. We crossed over the Japanese covered bridge, which has become a landmark of Hoi An and meandered through the streets declaring that we would be very happy to be staying here for considerably longer than the 4 days we have. In fact, if anyone from work is reading this - what do you think my chances are of using all my holiday in 2011-2012 now so I could stay here a month or so! Not likely I know, but anything's worth a try. Although with all the incredible tailoring I think that we would fast be bankrupt if I stayed too long!

We have just wandered back to the hotel to freshen up before heading off in search of food. We are trying to book a cooking class and unfortunately the one where you go to the market in the morning is all booked up while we are here so we are going to book into an afternoon one instead so we can learn some of the skills to practice on you all (in fact it is all booked so we will be Vietnamese cooking experts after Sunday!!)

On the way home I couldn't help my little self and ducked into a tailor which is now busily making my new coat. All the way round town a coat kept catching my eye, it's a wool number (so practical for home and it has sleeves!) in a dark grey wool. I could have had it in any colour but stuck with the dark grey and I have chosen a rich jade colour as the lining and piping around the edges. It is beautiful and it will be ready tomorrow at noon! You can get anything upon anything made, in fact they give you the catalogues for you to choose from! It is made of pure wool, made to measure and cost a grand total of $50 (which is about 36 squiddlies). I shall be heading back to get more - probably a dress, maybe some trousers and well, I could have anything in the shop - they even make jeans! We are limited vastly by baggage space and weight, but all my mountaineering stuff will be going by the wayside to make room and Mum, you may be receiving a package if I go too crazy and must get some shipped home! You can also get shoes and bags made so I am thinking of going on a certain shoe website which is a favourite of mine and seeing whether they can copy any of my favourites from the website!

So now, night has fallen so we are going to head to one of the restaurants (lit by lanterns overlooking the river - we went to one earlier for a beer - such bliss) for some tea and to soak up the atmosphere. It has only been a few hours, but I am sure that I will not want to leave Hoi An anytime soon! I will update again soon if only to report on my growing wardrobe!

Big hugs to you all, lots of love!

A happy and content and soon to be snazzily dressed Kat & Lee xxxx