Sorry for the long delay in writing our blogs we've been doing a lot of travelling, resting and planning in the past few day. But we've found the time to catch you all back up to speed with our travelling.

Hoi An is a beautiful riverside town, one of the most stunning we have visited in Vietnam. It was an area that avoided the heavy bombing during the Vietnam War. The town is classified as a UNESCO site due to its well preserved buildings and street plan and is one of the best examples of a Far Eastern port, with Chinese and Japanese influences. The buildings date back to between the 15th and 19th century. The Old Quarter consists of beautiful narrow pedestrian streets that are lined with faded yellow buildings, they are used as cafes, shops and restaurants. The buildings are all unquie with there clay tile roofs, wooden window shutters and porches carved with traditional motifs. A slow moving river runs behind the Old Quarter with small wooden boats sailing down with tourists and the odd local fishing. As the day moves into the evening the town changes, the colourful lantern's that hang outside nearly every building are lit and the large statues of the magical animals of Vietnam that have been built along the river are also lit. The locals sell paper lanterns with candles inside to float up the river. The rivers edge is lined with locals that are sat on their small plastic chairs buying food from the many small street vendors. They sell the local speciality of Cao Lau, which is pork with noodles. The whole place has such a magical feel compared to the rest of Vietnam we have seen so far, the locals feel calmer and the pace is slower.

The hotel we were staying in looked onto the river and was around 10 minutes from the Old Quarter, it was an ideal place to be to see the area but also have somewhere quieter to relax. The hotel was modern with a balcony, so we managed to wash our clothes again! And for the first time we had a small swimming pool, which was lovely to relax in on the two boiling hot days we had during our visit. The breakfast was served in the front courtyard that looked out onto the river. We loved the accommodation and felt it was the best place we had stayed so far.

We felt quiet exhausted from the travelling down from Dong Hoi and Hue, but we also feel the malaria tablets we are taking for Vietnam and Cambodia are affecting us as well, but for us we'd rather be tired than dealing with catching malaria. We took our 3 days slowly relaxing in our room, planning the rest of our journey and heading out to explore Hoi An.

While we were in Hoi An we had our tailored shirts made, we had to visit the shop 3 more times for fittings before we collected them. The quality was great and the staff where happy to do anything for you or make last minute changes. We were also offered cold bottled water for free each time as a friendly welcome. Although we were stressing about how we should have said no on the first day, we were very happy by the end. Matt's dark blue fitted shirt looked very smart and it helps being made out of lighter fabric. Nicole's light coloured shirt was made baggier on purpose to allow it to be cooler and cover up if we felt uncomfortable. We've worn them loads since we bought them and not had to wash them yet!

Hoi An was also the first incident of a nut attack! As many of you know Asian cooking does feature the odd nut or two in its dishes. We had been ruthlessly asking throughout the other countries, but became a little lax in Vietnam. The places we seemed to eat did not use peanuts or cashews in their dishes. But in Hoi An we stepped up in the restaurant chain and started to eat at some very reputable places. Our favourite was Morning Glory, a resturant focused on authentic Vietnamese food, although it was quiet expensive we ordered the cheaper items on the menu and these were delicious with herbs and seasoning to die for. So on our second visit Nicole decided to be adventurous and chose a local Hanoi speciality Pho dish, forgetting that we couldn't eat that dish in Hannoi as it contains peanuts. It tasted so good, but that always happens when they add nuts it tastes great! Luckily it was only a small amount of peanut and Nicole didn't eat too much. Nicole calmly took the anti-histamine tablets and headed back to the hotel. It was a mild reaction so nothing drastic happened and we waited out for the sickness to disappear while watching Disney! Which Nicole was very happy about!

We loved Hoi An and would have loved to have stayed longer. Although it was a bit of an expensive tourist trap is was so relaxing for us. It felt like a holiday away from the stress of constant travelling and planning. If you are ever in Vietnam make sure you head to Hoi An it is well worth visiting, however prepare for the bump up in price that goes with such a unquie location!