After a beautiful breakfast ( Hue Backpackers) we set of on our motor bike tour to hoi an!! It was with le family riders, which was run by sibling group of two brothers and a sister, not forgetting the mother who brought our bags by car!! I went on the back of Zak bike who turned out to b a good driver (He has lived in Saigon for 6 months) the journey was beautiful, we appeared to take a lot of back roads so really saw the countryside, we sipped on sugar cane juice which was quite refreshing at a pit stop, visited a floating fishing village, visited elephant spring which was like the local sun resort, had the most amazing lunch of seafood, towns out I like squid, had the best mussels one ever had, they were served with roasted peanuts!! Endless supply of drinks, hung and his family couldn't do enough for us!! They given conned some beef on the table, before wrapping in rice paper and serving it!

Afterwards we set off to ascend the hai van pass which didn't fail due to the spectacular views!! We visited the beach in Da Nang which was gorgeous, hung bought us ice cream: perfect :) we said goodbye to Michelle and Zak as they had to bread for the airport!! We visited marble mountain, again, numerous temples and caves, one of which was huge and was very impressive!! Climbed far too many steps typo get/to the viewpoint, it was disappointing to see such a beautiful city being developed with numerous resorts along the coast line!! Almost dread to think what it will b like in 10 years time !!

After Da Nang headed to our destination of Hoi am and we were lucky enough to see the sunset as we crossed the river!!

Hung brought us to his cousins tailor shop where more drinks were provided!! The clothes and magazines were tempting and before long I found myself being measured and paying a deposit for a dress to b made in less than 24 hours!! The family brought me to the hostel on the scooter which happened to run out of fuel but luckily there was a gas station across the road!! On seeing my hostel; saltwater hostel I was stunned, looked more like a hotel surprisingly it was only open 3 weeks and it was def a touch of luxury!! :)

On my first day in Hoi An, myself and Edda rented bikes and took off to see the my son ruins, about 50km outside of the city!! As we couldn't find a tourist office to very a map, ended up getting this handdrawn Map from an elderly man (which was actually brilliant)

, filled our tanks for about 3e and set off! It was a lovely journey through various towns and villages and we arrived without any stress or incident! The My Son ruins are quite small (and apparently a let down if you have been to ankor watt but as we hadn't we enjoyed the, set in a preserved pretty area, the contrast of the red brick against the back drop of green mountains and blue sky was stunning!! So with Edda tourist guide we explored the ruins ourselves!!! Lunch on the way back was quite entertaining as we stopped at a local restaurant without a word of English o English no English menu, I pointed to a picture of what I thought was meat skewers, turned out to be these sardine lookalike fish, needless to say I had the cook and waitress laughing when they saw my reaction!!! Turned out they weren't too bad alto not filling at all!! That evening I said goodbye to Edda as she went ahead to Nha trang and I headed to the beach for a quick ip and watch the sunset!! Strangely the beach got really really busy at sundown, as all the locals came to swim,, okay and eat at the endless

Restaurants, some of which appeared all of a sudden on the beach!!

The following day was destined to be my lazy day, after the last few hectic ones!! So by 9am I was sunbathing by the hostel pool, and by 11 I was at the beach with two lovely Dutch Girls who turned out to be in the social work field so was on interesting to compare jobs!! In the evening I explored the town which is so pretty, bright colours lanterns, quaint cafes and restaurants lining the paved streets as S's of course endless tailors!! It felt had a very romantic atmosphere!!

Hoi an really is the place to get clothes made, and most can b ready in 12 to 24 hours!! I did test myself to a getting a dress made and altho tempted to get so much more, the thought of the extra weight in my backpack held me back!!

Well today 29th had been a great day!! Nice early start and did a cooking tour/course with an agency organised by the hostel!! I was tj only one on the tour which definitely has its benefits: being all the attention, doing all the cooking and most importantly eating all the food!! First up was a tour of the market which was a good opportunity to learn about different foods, then a drive through the rice fields. Av walk around the vegetable garden, discovering I love lemon grass!! W we did some vegetable decorations, made yummy spring rolls with shrimp and pork, made a delicious papaya salad, then it was on to making chicken with lemon grass and garlic before finishing up flipping some Vietnamese pancakes!! It was a lovely mornings a activity and kept me filled for the day!!

After the tour, it was a quick jump in the pool before catching the sleeper bus to Nha Trang, thank God it was a nice bus with lots of tourists on it this time!!