T'was a slow afternoon! We like The Essence Hotel . A very friendly and information manager and front desk. A good lunch at the Hotel to recharge our batteries but I think the train journey definitely left me feeling a lot more tired than I thought I was...I was accused of being very tetchy! Hmmm. MOI? Definitely back in a city... Motorbikes everywhere again! We walked into the Old quarter, lots of shops, lots of street hawkers. We make a very important purc...

We made it! A distance of 500 miles from Da Nang to Hanoi in 18 hours and 20 minutes!! 10 stops in total. Why so long considering only 500 miles? The train only does a maximum of we think 40mph...a snail's pace. There ain't no express trains here! Ok..so it wasn't quite the Orient Express. I think we must have hyped up the train description to the kids a bit too far. "It's TINY! I thought we had a carriage!" were the words muttered once we found our cabin...c...

8.50am sharp and Emma and I (no boys allowed!!) are in a taxi to Hoi An town to pick up our tailor made shoes! All 5 fit perfectly and we love and every single pair! In fact we have made a pact to come back here when we do our last leg in Da Nang (30 minute ride vs current 10 mins) to get a few more pairs...sooooo cheap compared to London and we can have the exact design and colour we want :-) Needless to say, we did an extra detour on this trip and visited a fe...

Clear blue skies again. Another chilled day split between the beach and pool, interrupted only by a 30 minute jet ski ride minus myself (no travel sickness tablet would be good enough to prevent me being sick on this!) and lunch :-) 4pm. Trip back into Hoi An town to pick up the clothes we got measured for yesterday. Prior to going to the shop directly though, Emma and I left the boys in a cafe so we could check out the footwear scene! Oh yes...another huge suc...

It's not surprising that at the amazing sunrise hotel you can have the opportunity to jet ski! We took the opportunity with both hands and used it the best we could. It was a fantastic experience and great fun! At times it was scary (mostly when daddy was steering!) as it was quite choppy out at sea. Me and Jake both had many turns to drive the jet ski and really loved it! A truly sporty way to start the day! Emma X