After a much safer/smoother day bus journey, we arrived in Hoi An. We had heard this is a highlight of a trip to Vietnam, so we were really looking forward to it. We were a bit concerned when we got dropped off at our hotel in yet another ridiculously touristy area of town full of bars and hotels and not much else, but after a short walk to the old historical area we had changed our minds within minutes and knew we would want to spend longer here already. The old centre was largely untouched during the wars, so still has an authentic historical feel to it, desite the fact that its main industry is tourism. The old town was also closed to cars and so felt a bit less hectic. We enjoyed just wandering around the town so much and generally being there that we kind of forgot to do any of the paid tourist sites in Hoi An itself, such as the bridge in the blog picture, or the temples, but I don't think we really missed out and we busy most of the 5 days we spent there.

We ate in an amazing restaurant called "Restaurant 96" on the river front, watching all the boats go by, which was by far the cheapest meal we have had for a while, and we came back here 3 times in 5 days. The speciality food here is called cao lau, which is doughy flat noodles mixed with croutons, bean sprouts and greens with pork slices. Apparently real cao lau can only be made from water drawn from the local Ba le Well (and supposedly you can taste the difference!) We ate this a lot as it was so cheap and yummy. Another favourite was fish steamed in banana leaves, and "white Rose" which is shrimp encased in rice paper and steamed. in the evening we went to a place called Cafe des Amis, which doesnt have a menu but the chef cooks whatever 5 course meal he fancies each night, so its never the same. I had been silly and taken my malaria tablet on a empty stomach...well nearly empty, we had gone to a place at "happy hour" with 2 strong gins for about 1 pound, and we had got into playing pool, and ended up having 3 each. This would usually have been ok, but we hadnt been drinking that much in Vietnam so far, and this along with the malaria tablet made me feel extremely sick, so I didnt enjoy the meal as much as I could have!!

Hanoi is famous for tailors, you can wander in with pictures or clothes that you want copied, and the next day its there ready for you to try on, you can keep going back until you are happy with it. This was obviously going to be a bit dangerous, as once you realised how cheap it was compared to in England, it was impossible to stop. It was quite a horrible greedy feeling really, you left the shop thinking "I wish I had got 1 more of this, and another one of those in a different colour.." and the next day, sure enough, you are back in there asking for more.. We did a bit of research to find a reliable tailor as we heard you have to be careful. Craig had been recommended one called Tony's tailors, which was quite a walk out of the town (about 15mins) but turned out to be worth it, as it wasnt one which had raised all their prices for worse quality right in the centre of the tourist area. They were really lovely in there, 2 women seemed to be in charge, full of flattery of course, but they seemed genuine and not just trying to scam you like a lot of places we heard of. "Tony" the owner has MS, but he came out to see us a few times and chatted.. it turns out he is actually called Binh, but as an Arsenal fan (!) he named the shop after Tony Adams, and now everyone calls him Tony! He was a lovely guy, and spoke really good English. Craig started off asking for a suit, and within 5 mins he was measured up and done. I picked out a dress from a magazine, then got tempted by a suit (my excuse being that I need one for work when I get back...not that i have a job!) We also orded a few shirts each. We picked out the materials and cuts etc (so many decisions) and left the shop thinking we had done pretty well...very strong, and hadnt got carried away...This didnt last long. Each time we went back for fittings we ordered more...here is my total: 1 suit, 4 shirts, 1 dress, 3 skirts, all made from scratch, all for under 100 pounds. My total was 109 pounds including the shipping cost to get it all home! Craig did a bit better than me on the total, but got 1 suit, 4 shirts and a coat for even less than me. I almost felt relieved when we got out of there for the last time (we went back 4 times) and my uncontrollable shopping high gradually went away. From what we heard I still think we got away lightly!!

We signed up for a cooking class for half a day, being taken around the local market, where all the different ingredients were explained to us. This was good, as although it was on a tour, our guide was really good, and you felt less stupid walking around the market. As a tourist you clearly arent there to buy vegetables, but to gawp...if you are on a tour, it somehow felt more excusable! We got taken on a boat for 25minutes down to the cooking school, where various dishes were demonstrated and stations were set up for us to try the different things. We made an eggplant stew, spring rolls, and vietnamese pancakes. We had to first make the rice paper for the spring rolls which I was useless at. The rice is soaked overnight and then blended to make a batter, you the spoon ladles of it onto cotton which is stretched over a pot of boing water before quickly putting the lid on to steam them. Mine were thick and rubbery, yum. The class was good fun, and they helped you a lot, so nothing was a complete disaster, and we got to eat our "creations" as we went along.

We also had a go at the decorative vegetable carvings... making ferns/roses/lilies out of cucumber/tomatoes. The last 2 went ok, but my cucumber thing was terrible and so broken by the end of it, I could blame it on the knife being blunt, but truthfully I cant even cut thin, even slices from cucumber for a salad. We though all the eating was over, but then we sat down to a huge meal where they cooked all these thing (properly) for us, so we were extremely full!! In the afternoon we had our second clothes fitting, and luckily I still fitted into my suit and shirt.

The next day we got up at 4.30am (why oh why?) to go to My Son, which is an area of ruins from the ancient kingdom of Champa, a Unesco world heritage site. We went on the early tour as apparently its not that fun at peak time, too many people and too hot. It consists of groups of temples, imaginatively named A,B,C,D,E,F and G. Some of these took centuries to build, as the stones had to be carried few at a time by elephant for 15km, and were almost completely destroyed in days/weeks/months by the americans in the war, which was very sad. 2 groups of temples were still intact though and very beautiful. When we got back it was only about 8.30pm so we went back to bed, and when we woke up it all felt like it had been a dream!! very wierd! We did our daily trek to Tonys, which was hard work in the midday sun, and we always arrived red and sweaty, which wasnt much good for the clothes! In the evening we went to our happy hour place for more gin and tonics and pool, where I beat craig a couple of times and came pretty damn close to beating him a few more times which he wasnt too proud of!

We were lucky to be in Hoi An, on "Legendary Night" where every month on the full moon, the town in closed off to motorbikes and the old town celebrates, the river is full of colourful floating lanterns and the town gets absolutely packed, lots of singing and dancing etc. We were there for the most celebrated one of the year and although we never found out the exact reason we think it was for Buddahs birthday. We ate at our favourite (restaurant 96 again!) the waiters now know who we are!

Our last full day in Hoi An, we spent on the really clean white sandy beach, but we quickly realised relaxing on the beach in Vietnam is not at all relaxing as every 2 minutes someone comes up to you to sell you something, and some dont take no for an answer. Even pretending to be asleep makes no difference!! On our last night I found another quite large cockroach in our bathroom, which had crawled out from behind a tile! this time I managed not to scream (as loudly) and we shut the door and left it. In the morning all you could see was its feelers wiggling from beind the tile, so I'm very glad we were leaving that hotel!

On bus journey day we had up until 5.30pm to say goodbye to Hoi An. Craig had picked up a leaflet about a charity called Children's Hope in Action, and having emailed the guy who runs it, we had been invited to meet with him. We found out the charity helps children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy in the poor surrounding areas of Hoi An, which the tourists are not aware of as the centre itself is comparatively wealthy due to tourism. There is a large proportion of children in certain areas of Vietnam with severe disabilities, and although it has not been proven its suspected that this is caused by Agent Orange, the herbicide that the Americans sprayed over the landscape during the war, to uncover the Vietcong. The average wage of an adult in these areas in $1 a day, and despite being a communist country the healthcare system and education are extremely poor due to the lack of enforced taxes. This means that children with disabilities and illness cannot afford any treatment whatsoever (we were told heart surgey would cost over $2000) The clinic provides funding for surgery, physiotherapy and covers transport costs and loss of wages of the parents who have to bring them here. We had a meeting with the Australian couple in charge of the clinic, who chatted to us about what they do at the charity, and the list went on. They ended up seeming pretty positive about the idea of having volunteers sent out there and so it was successful, and apart from anything else a really interesting thing to do. After the meeting we had used up most of the time, so we went to say goodbye to happy hour, before joing the mad scramble to get on the bus. The driver slapped me on the foot as I still had my flip flops on(I was going to take them off!) which I didnt like very much and I told him so. Craig stayed well out of it and didnt stick up for me!hurrumph!