Hi Guys

Sorry it's been a while since last time but we've been busy! haha

We're now in Cambodia but this blog is about Hoi An and Nha Trang (dont think i'll have time to write lots so i'll add to it on Monday!)

We caught the sleeper train to Da Nang 14hrs.....6 hours of hell once I woke up! The start of my bug which stayed for 4-5 days, Daz had it too, not as bad though. It didnt stop us seeing stuff but it wasnt great trying to search for loo's! LOL

As some of you know, we booked a rather swish hotel in Hoi An called Southern Hotel and Villa....spent a little more than we should but it had a pool!!! Was lovely!

Hoi An is a little fishing village on the river and had a lot of charm.....no much quieter than the big cities, more cycles passed by than scooters sometimes!!! Thier archietecture had a mixture of many cultures including french, japanease, chinease....buildings were pretty and the ancient town was very quaint. To help preserve the old town we were supposed to pay 75,000 Dong (3quid each) but we never came across a toll both! So that helped us buy a few 40 pence beers one night!!!!!!

There wasnt a massive amount to do in Hoi An, its most famously known for its dress making! There are dress making shops literally every other shop! They try and get you in and look at their designs. you can choose any garment, style, colour fabric etc and they make it for you!!! I decided I wanted a floaty surfy skirt.....went to one which was highly recommen~ded and 4 hours later went to pick it up! $15 (i should of haggled) but its lovely, cream with floral red, very roxy style! Happy days! Darren chose not to purchase a suit (which is all they really did for men!) Its still +30degrees!!!

We visted the Japanease bridge which had a pagoda inside, very cute and wondered through the market! I still felt a bit dogde this day but I still marched on!!!!!!! We headed to Cau Dai beach for the afternoon on our first day and the beach was lush.....6km of white sand, palm trees, only downside....the bloomin vietnamease people coming up to you selling this, that and everything. 100 times worse than say in spain with watermelons! they just wont take no for an answer and its soooo annoying! Apart from that the beach was great, however things went a bit pear shape once we were leaving the beach as our hotel was supposed to pick us up at 4.20pm! By 5pm we decided to walk as our mobiles didnt work and we didnt think to go to a bar to ring, we didnt think it was very far!......................45 mins later Daz had to take me into a 4star hotel asking if I can use the loo as I was pretty bad! They informed us that we were still about 3 miles away and it was now dark! haha...ops! So they offered us their taxi for $4 'no thankyou'so we kept walking......PARENTS CLOSE YUOR EYES......i got pretty bad so as usual in Vietnam, scooter taxi's stop and ask if you need a ride every 2 mins so once one stopped, we bartered a price for about 50p and we both got on the back and he took us back to our hotel (I STRESS HOI AN IS NOT A BUSY PLACE....CROSSING THE ROAD IS MUCH EASIER SO THEREFORE WE FELT GETTING ON A SCOOTER WAS A SAFE OPTION AT THE TIME)

We're still alive!!!!!! Hotel told us we needed to ring them to confirm....Stupid~! I crawled into bed waiting for next day! Think Daz had dinner on his own bless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next day we went to My Son temple ruins about 35km inland on a tour! Was enjoyable, set at the bottom of a mountain range, in jungle surrounds, very beautiful....the temples are actually older than those in Angkor Wat dating back as early as 700 AD....many were destroyed by US B-52's during the Vietnam War and they are only used now once a year by Hindu Monks for a celebration in April, during the Lunear New Year (i think) We enjoyed the tour, however i think Angkor Wat will be a bit more impressive!

We spent 3 nights in Hoi An, unfortunately our final day was a washout! Before leaving on a sleeper bus (google them, so funny, beds on bus!) we were hoping to see Marble Mountains, which is a small mountain range in the middle of land that is flat for miles! However we woke up and it was chucking it down.....not seen rain like it in a long time. Still feeling ill.....we stayed in room till checkout at midday and then went for lunch in town and sat in a pub (cheap and cheerful) for a few hours!!!!!! Its so funny when it rains, they wear rain macs (like you get in florida) which cover their scooters and bikes! Its really funny!!!!! They try selling them too....Daz nearly bought one but he decided to get wet instead! After being in that hotel we're on a tight budget for a week or two!

We headed back to hotel and grabbed sleeper bus at 6pm......aiming to arrive into Nha Trang at 6am the following morning. $15 which covered transport and a nights sleep...not too bad!!!!!!

Oooo we did see out first crash in Hoi An, wasnt really a crash, just some dude skidded in the rain while we were wasting a few hours in the pub, he fell off 'Çrash' lay still for a few seconds and then got back on like it was just a regular thing!!! We wont be getting on any more scooters so DIM WORRY!~

I'll update our travels in Nha Trang on Monday and get photos up!!!

Hoi An was very pretty and quaint, much more laid back than the bigger cities and definately a shopperholics dream!!! We saw two irish girls carry 4 big bags full of clothes back from the town to hotel the day before the left! They had to buy a new big bag to ship it all home! Im happy with my one purchase though!!!!

Will update on Monday!!!!!!!!

Ok so it's not Monday but here is a little info about Nha Trang!!!! Arrived on sleeper bus which you can see in photos!!! Was funny!

Nha Trang is a sea side resort, how can we describe it....maybe Magaluf 25 years ago! haha! Quite a few pubs/restuarants scattered along the main road by beach and on the beach, but its a shame the government/council dont put a little more money into scrubbing up the streets and beach, it was lovely place, just a little rough round the edges!!!

Our hostel was fab! 8$ for the room per night and the friendly owner spole great English and made it his personal job to ensure we had a wonderful time!

We went out on a day boat trip around the surrounding islands that lie off the coast, the weather looked a little dodgey at first but as the afternoon crept in the sun came out and both of us got a little burnt, ooops! Daz was loving the free homemade wine and moonshine on the floating bar! I had just recovered from my bug day before so I was proud I was on the boat and not feeling rough!

Enjoyed a little beach time on a tiny beach on a little island and Daz loved the aquarium! Although I got excited when I saw big turtles in the big pool outside!

We did have other plans for Nha Trang on our final day, seeing the big buddha on a hill and renting bikes and cycling around the town, scooters definately not a problem here!!! But unfortunately we had another bad day of rain, couldnt do anything so we paid for an extra night in our hotel, not really much considering we would have spent more than $8 sightseeing and watched movies in our room till our 8pm sleeper bus to Saigon!

Nha Trang was a good stop off, the beach was long and pretty, however you yet again get bugged by the people selling things and they just dont take no for an answer!!!!!!!! Also beach crime is very big here so we were careful day and night time which is a shame! Didnt get to see as much as we'd like to have but we had a great time with what we did! The boat trip was a hell of a laugh!

Sleeper to Saigon, so thats another story you'll have to wait for!!!!!!