Hoi An was next on our tour and so we took the 6 hour bus from Hue. We arrived just after 2pm and were lured in to a hotel that had a swimming pool, what with there actually being scorching sunshine in Hoi An as opposed to the rain at Hue. There are tailors everywhere in the town, in fact it's impossible to walk 50m without there being one but we decided that being the poor little travellers that we are we wouldn't be having any silk pyjamas or suits made. Instead we headed to the local market which sold a bit of everything from fresh fruit and fish, to pearl necklaces and earrings. After stocking up on jewelerry we sought out a little bar and sat and played cards and drank beer and cocktails... so much for the poor travellers :P In the evening we headed to a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet and ate the local speciality of fish wrapped in banana leaf with garlic and lemon grass; very tastey.

The next morning we rented some bicycles and went to the nearest beach 5km away. We'd had enough of the cold and wet and so lazing around in the sun sounded perfect. It was a really pretty beach, white sands, clear waters and palm trees which completed the atmosphere and also doubled up as somewhere to get some shade when we were done frying. The cycle to and from the beach was extremely picturesque and we were surrounded by padi fields and little shops, plus the terrain was flat and so didn't demand too much energy in the baking heat. Just before we reached the beach the peace was unsettled by a man in uniform who started blowing a whistle and then yelling at us whilst banging a metal sign with a stick. After a moment of panic we realised that the performance was all because we were supposed to park our bikes there. It was all a bit dramatic, we thought we'd actually done something wrong! The rest of the day was much more relaxed though and we tried our hardest to make it look like we'd been out of England for 2 and a half months as we still looked like milk bottles. The tans are coming along nicely now though :)

The following day we went to My Son (pronounced 'me son') which is like a mini version of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The coach was supposed to pick us up at 8am but as we were eating breakfast in a cafe across the road, a coach pulled up at 7.45 and the guide shouted My son. Panic sticken, I legged it across to the hotel where they nodded when I asked if that was the My son bus. We grabbed our omlette butties and paid up, legged it to the bus and were told that this wasn't our bus. The lady at reception explained, this is the bus to My Son but not your bus... grrrrr. Our coach arrived at 8.40. My Son itself was beautiful and it involved taking lots of photos, oooing and arring and doing the obligatory posing behind a statue with its head missing. Dean and I were also impressed by one of the guides who led another group around, he was just a little enthusiastic about his job and spoke like a Vietnamese Steve Irwin with the strangest mix of accents you've ever heard. We That night it rained heavily and so after a quick tea we grabbed a box of oreos, a bottle of 7up, 2 mini toblerones and sat and watched 'Jumper' in the room like a right couple of sad asses, we enjoyed it though.

We'd met an oldish man in a restaurant two nights previously and he had sold us a trip to his local village. With bicycles at the ready he showed up at our hotel and we rode to his village early on the Sunday morning. H was a very sweet man and even handed out sun hats to the 7 of us on the trip to make sure we didn't get too hot. When we reached the village he told us all about its history and about how the locals relied heavily upon fishing. He also exaplined that they wer every lucky in 2007 when a typhoon hit the village and caused minimal damage. Next we were shown local shrines and then taken to where local women made potteries. After giving us a quick demonstration, the head potter gestured at me to have a go. I took a seat at the wheel and under her guidance managed to produce a respectable little pot. Dean was next and was under some pressure representing the male species being the only guy there. Unfortunately his pot turned out as a lump of wiggly clay. Hehe. He was a bit gutted as everyone else managed to make something that resembled a pot. O well. After the pottery we headed to the river to do some fishing which Dean got very excited about. With our bamboo rods in hand we set about catching ourelves a fish. After about 15 minutes I had managed to catch a little silver one which was then thrown back in to the water. Dean quickly followed in the catching but that was it for the 2 of us for the remaining hour. When Mr Trung was later asking about how many fish we'd caught, Dean was proud that he'd caught one but was met by the reply of "yes, a very small one though" by old Trungy... Hahaha!! Bless. We then cycled to Mr Trung's house where his wife had prepared a lunch of epic proprtions, 6 spring rolls each, veg noodles, an entire fish, rice, vegetables and then a fruit salad. Needless to say, the ride home again was harder than the ride there. The evening consisted of us heading to an awesome bar which played great rock music on full blast and had a huge picture of Bono as superman behind the bar. Dean got particularly excited when the Foo Fighters' "hero" came on and then got sad because Brindle wasn't there to chair dance with him. You'll have to ask Dean about that one.

Monday was another beach day and we booked our ticket to Quy Nhon which would break up the journey to Nha Trang. I also headed to some salon in the back of the market and had a manicure, foot and leg massage, back and neck massage and a lady removed the hard skin from my feet... gross! All this for the bargain price of a fiver!

Another blog is likely to follow tomorrow and I promise to attempt to put up some pics then too :)

xxxx