We arrived in Danang after our overnight train, which went ok, apart from the dirty bed sheets, and jumped straight on a bus to Hoi An, a wee small town 45mins outside Danang.We were lucky on the train as the other cabins our group were in had cockroaches climbing up the walls-gross!

Were both feeling bit better today which feels pretty great and were well enough to do an orientation walk around the town after checking in.Jacks been so good to us, he got us a room on the ground floor so we didn't have to carry our bags far! Love you Jack!We had a wee dander through the town which is beautiful, and is a UNESCO world heritage site, then went for some lunch - our 1st full meal in 3 days! Pasta and tomato sauce if you're curious - was nice to eat something and keep it down!

Afterwards we had the day free to do what we wanted so most of us decided to check out the shops Hoi An is famous for - the tailoring shops! Craig had no choice but to follow!Pretty much every shop here is a tailors, its great! After having a quick look in one Jack recommended I (Laura) picked a simple wee dress to have made! I wanted something made from Hoi An and didn't know how long I would be able to walk around for so I acted on impulse!

After shopping we wandered back to the hotel for a wee rest before dinner, and got totally soaked on the way when torrential rain hit! We headed back down towards the river for dinner that night and Craig's appetite seems to have properly returned as he ordered a 3 course meal, which was under $5, and ate it all!My food didn't really appeal to me (even Craig's chocolate pancake didn't sound nice) but managed to get some chips and vanilla ice cream down me! Not together by the way!After dinner we headed back to the hotel, not wanting to over do it.We had a chat with home on Skype which seems to be finally working, and prayed for good weather tomorrow for a day at the beach.

On day 2 we woke up to torrential rain (again), so our chances of going to the beach were slim. Got some breakfast and then got some more blogs and photos on the website.I had to collect my dress today, and it was still mad rain, so Jack got his friend to take me down on his motorbike and bring me back! Have to say we're enjoying the motorbikes out here, and Hoi An is not that busy traffic wise anyway. Picked up my dress, which is lovely and jumped back on the bike home, was a little sad when I had to get off!The rain got worse after that, the street our hotel was on was flooded ankle deep.We spent a while just watching the rain and people trying to wade through it, was entertaining!

In the afternoon the weather cleared, so we took our chance to leave the hotel and venture down to the old town for a walkabout.Hoi An really is beautiful, would definitely come back here for a few days (with an empty suitcase so we could stock up on clothes and paintings!).We were dandering around taking photos when a local street seller came over and put her baskets and conical hat on me for a great photo, which Jack wants to use for the 2011 Gap Adventure website - I'm going to be famous! The woman was so lovely, as all the people here seem to be. Even though there is a language barrier, it's amazing how much a smile and laugh can mean.Afterwards we took a private boat trip down the river, $5 for the 2 of us, which showed us a bit more of the local life. Our guide was lovely, he really tried to communicate with us and tell us what things were.He seemed to love the chance to practice his English, informing us that this was a small river and the other river was big!He was really cool, taking lots of photos of us, and allowed us to drive the boat back a bit!We gave him a dollar tip at the end, and you would have thought it was a $20 tip from his reaction.

We headed back to the hotel after that and decided to take a dip in our roof top pool, which was pretty cool.Went to a place called cargo club for dinner - food was awesome, but so expensive - $15 for both of us! Ridiculous! It was a beautiful restaurant though!When walking back to the hotel that night the river had totally flooded and had taken away the road beside it. Took some photos showing the water almost in the restaurant we ate in the 1st night.We got on skype before we went to bed, nice to speak to home again.Leave Hoi An in the morning for Hue, will be sad to leave, its our favorite place in Vietnam so far!

Craig and Laura =)