Keen to miss out Nha Trang, a beach resort notorious for muggings and other crimes, we decided to try and get somewhat off of the beaten track and go to a town about 5 hours North of Nha Trang, called Qui Nhon. We arrived late at night, but the next day when we got ourselves together to grab some food, we were rewarded with a 'Definitely off of the Beaten Track' award. There were no menus in English at all, and as we walked the streets the adults stared and the children laughed at us.

The beach was completely deserted; Vietnamese women in particular cover up head to toe, even wearing socks with their flip flops as it is the fashion to be as white (and therefore Western) as possible. Strange how that used to be the way of the Westerners only a hundred years ago, and now it dictates the beauty industry in the East. We didn't hit the beach as the weather wasn't great, so we just wondered around the town for the day, exploring a bit and catching up online. The most amazing price for the internet so far (and I really doubt this will be beaten) - 12p for two hours. Ridiculous.

Due to the weather being dodgy we decided to just stay the one day in Qui Nhon and get the local bus up to Hoi An the next morning. We arrived in Hoi An without knowing that it was the International Choir Competition headquarters for that week - as if that was going to be listed in any of our Rough Guides or Lonely Planets. Consequently, we could not find a bed in town for love nor money. So used to being able to rock up somewhere and fairly easily find a place to stay for the night, we hadn't even considered booking somewhere in advance. One guesthouse said they could put us up the next night onwards, and that we were welcome to sleep in the reception area for the night, with the company of a special guest - the resident mouse. After running around in a rainy Hoi An for an hour trying to find what my Dad would call 'digs' to no avail, we agreed.

For those who don't know, Hoi An is the tailoring centre of Vietnam. There are countless tailors offering pretty much everything that you could want made specifically to fit you: suits, dresses, jackets, coats, even shoes - it goes on. And it pretty much goes without saying by now, but it's cheap. Wanting our own little piece of Vietnamese tailoring expertise, Lauren, Vicky and I headed out to find the right tailor with the right product, leaving Steve to sleep (he does that a lot). I fell in love with a coat advertised in one tailors' book, and stupidly ignoring my friend Bella's advice to only get something made that they have on display, I got measured up for the coat.

Having left Steve to sleep, we found ourselves out for the majority of the day and consequently left him to his own devices. In a town full of tailors. He was so chuffed when telling us about how he managed at the tailors all by himself, ordering a pinstripe hoodie, some jeans with a Scottish flag on the derrier for a friend (estimating his size - as you do when it comes to tailored goods) and some special trainers with the Scottish flag appliqued on the back and more impressively, 'Stevie C' embroidered on the tongue. Never suggest that a Scotsman likes to blend in.

But back to my own tailoring nightmare. Long story short, it took SIX fittings over three days to get this coat right. It was so horrifically wrong that at one point I had four people around me dicussing the coat: two employees, the tailor himself and the shouting manager. Completely scarred from tailoring, I walked away with a coat that luckily grew on me hugely as the days went by - I think I had trauma association with it and hated it every time I looked at it for awhile.

Which brings me to another thing. If I carry on eating the cakes and patries from Cargo, I will not fit into said coat. They are delicious. Hoi An is still has a very strong French influence; it's like lifting up a little French village and plonking it in South East Asia so hard that the best of Vietnamese culture overflows into it. Even though it rained a lot, it was beautiful and quaint, and because it did rain it just felt more European. The patisseries help this. It's a fantastic mix between the two places and quickly became one of my favourite stops on my trip.

Whilst in town, there was a local festivity focused around light. On the full moon, all of the lights in Hoi An were switched off save for the paper lanterns that hung amongst the streets and along the river. We went on a short boat ride with lit candles in a paper flower origami creation and set them free floating down the river, as tradition dictates, to bring our families good luck. Hopefully mine will win the lottery so I can stay in South East Asia forever. Probably doesn't work that way.

The sun finally reared its head towards the end of our stay in Hoi An, leading us to rent bikes for the day and cycle the 5km or so to the beach. It's the first time I've been on a bike in about seven years and yet now I have this notion to buy a bike when I get home (obviously one with a wicker basket) and cycle my way around town. Probably slightly less idyllic back in London with all the pollution, bus drivers and rain blinding you.

That evening we bumped into the procession of international choirs making their way through Hoi An. All were dressed up in their brightly coloured outfits native to their countries, waving their flags and singing in tune (you would hope as much). It was good to see people so happy and having such a great time in exchange for being bedless for a night.

Unfortunately for my bank account, Hoi An not only has an array of tailors, but a fantastic market with a huge collection of lacquerware. I did a ridiculous amount of shopping for stuff I don't even have room to store at home, let alone on the road. I bought ten bowls. Yes, bowls. I don't even have my own house/kitchen and rarely have the occasion to whip out lacquered coconut bowls from Vietnam in a flurry of chips and dips. It was probably a good thing we left Hoi An when we did else I would've had to dedicate a proportion of my budget to overland post and storage costs. Onwards and geographically upwards to Hue.