Good afternoon uk and good evening from Hoi An.

We arrived safe and sound in Hoi An and you instantly get that small town feel which is a nice change. The hostel 'Sunflower' was a recommendation from our Hungarian friends, and the Hungarians know their hostels obviously. Can not complain with friendly staff, clean rooms, buffet breakfast and tv all for about £6.

The town here has a quiet feel about which is a good thing. It is French in its architecture and has a lot of cafes restaurants and I'm reliably informed 600 shops/Market stalls selling silk in some form. Tina has kept spending to minimum (unless she is doing it when im sleep which is a possibility) which I'm surprised by although she purchased a silk scarf. I feel she was somewhat on a high by the girl who owned the shop telling her she beautiful how lucky I was to have her. The only compliment I got was regarding how nice my ears were as they looked like buddha ears. I decided to take myself and my buddha ears away from the shop without a further purchase.

We got involved with the local food on the riverside with some fish (snapper) wrapped in banana leaf with lemon sauce which is a local special at the little restaurant of 'hong phuc'. Hoi An's other speciality was banh bao bac or 'White rose', which are shrimp dumplin.

It was time to get back into the trips and we visited My Son (pronounced 'me son'). I was informed 'My Son' stands for beautiful mountains which surround the temples built for the cham priests. These were discovered by a lone French soldier in 1886. Our tour guide was a rather energetic little fellow called 'djoung'. He told us about how the Cham people from Indonesia who built 70 temples at My Son, however, only 30 survived the bombing by the US during the Vietnam war. When the French rediscovered My Son in the 1800's they bizarrely cut the heads off all if the statutes and carvings and took them back to France, they are now in the Louvre. Damn French!

Our tour guide gave us a lot of factual information but I love when the tour guides slip from facts into anti-Americanism when posing the question on the bus, "Why would Americans bomb this area? Why? Why? Why?". He actually asked us all to come up with explanations/answers. I quickly distanced myself from 2 Americans on the bus as I felt they could be in for a rocky ride on this one and I would let them come up win their own answers.

Our small boat then took us from the ruins onto a small village where they make the local boats, furniture and crafts. Have to say it was impressive to see them at work and a few pictures will follow to kind of get an idea. The boat then took us up river but to be honest you could see more with a trek up the orwell, well so Tina constantly informed.

Thats Hoi An done and i have to say it was very enjoyable indeed, it was a shame the weather was not slightly better but you cant have everything. We did a lot more stuff but I'm bored of catching up on my blog once again. A short bus ride from Hoi An to Hue is to follow.

Robbie C out for now.