HOI AN

Bargain bus took us to Hoi An, arrived outside a hotel which had rooms for 20usd and a pool. It was a bit far from town so we decided to a trek in the baking sun with backpacks to find another hotel. We had to crash at a restaurant called Voulez Vous and Russ went forth to find shelter. While Teej drank beers and chatted to the local waitress.Got a hotel for 30usd which did't have a pool but nonetheless it was pretty clean, whitewashed walls and a nice balcony overlooking a rice paddy field. We had a couple of lizards, a few mozzies and some ants as company in the room.

Got in to a nice place but 30usd a night. No pool :(. Very happy here. Hoi An is a complete contrast to Hanoi and Hue. Very chilled, but touristy. It has been recognized as World Heritage Site by UNESCO. All the buildings in the old town are yellow with brown signs. We spoke to a US guy who owns the Mrs Ly restaurant with his wife and he said the council strive for consistency with all the buildings and fine people who haven't got the correct signage. It looks really cosmopolitan with dark brown straw tub-chairs in many of the cafes as opposed to the plastic children's chairs on the streets of Hanoi. They are famous for tailoring but we couldn't be bothered to sit though a fitting and also have the hassle of carrying it around (it's quite expensicve to post things back to the UK. The river at night is beautiful with lit up floating dragons, (bizarrely) two cats in a basket and a turtle, but there are lanterns everywhere. We hired a couple of bikes to get to the Cue Dai beach and found a cool back road throught the countryside, getting lost on the way. The locals all shouted hello at us and we replied with Sin Chao. We were forced to pull our bikes over to park and pay 10,000dong. The beach is really pretty, it is lined with palm trees and also a lot of restaurants where the waitresses literally sprint to the beach to say hello and ask you to come in. I thought one of them was trying to drag Russ off. We settled on a place where we didn't get hassled, she said we could have a sunbed if we ate there but we took the bed anyway and just paid for the water. As we sat and relaxed we heard the sound of a cat in the distance, meow, MEOW, It got louder and louder until we realised it was HELLO and it came from the Lucky Lucky Ladies selling their wares. Mainly- HELLO you want to buy something or you like my mango and pineapple, cigarrettes and bottled water which on closer inspection turned out to be bottles they had pulled out of the bin the previous day and had filled with tap water. NIIIICE! Best to drink canned drinks but wipe them first as I found a few had bird poo on them!

Met Mark and Miriam from our train ride from Hanoi to Hue and had a nice lunch and sank a few beers. Had dinner at Voulez-Vous again as their salads were amazing. It hurtled down with monsoonal rain so we decided we had to stay and have more beers, well if they are cheaper than soft drinks, why not.

Hoi An is a great destination for a 2 week holiday but we are spending 3 days here and off to Na Trang tonight, the capital of beaches..... over and out

Teej n Russ