20th Jan - Hoi An

Arrived in Hoi An - famous for it's cheap tailor suits and dresses - told by restaurant owners and hostel owners to go to their cousins tailor as they are 'the best in town - cheap cheap!'

Next day we wandered through the old town to the market loads of lovely jewellery - pretty dissapointed at how much everything is - quite nice necklace - 1000,000dong (30pounds!) Most were not willing to be bartered down at all. The market was bonkers! Got chased by a lady shouting prices at Laura for a bracelett she didn;t even want. Laura also pushed a man - well it got very stressfull with everyone banging into us and he blatently pushed me twice so.. Also in hugh's attempt to get away from the pile of dead chickens a lady was carrying hugh had its face rub on his leg in the crowd :( We figured everything is so expensive because of chinese new year (or tet for vietnam) Later we walked all around old town - over the bridge to the riverside where there was lots of mini wooden tables and chairs with a happy little lady shining a torch at her menu. We sat down & had some amazing noodles! We sat right by the river, there were floating lanterns in the river & loads of pretty coloured lanterns everywhere - so perfect.

22nd Jan - Slept in (well it is a sunday) althrough we were told things would be closed as it is chinese NY eve things are still pretty bussling. We did a walking tour we had copied out of a book and saw loads of lovely chinese temples (pagodas) which were all kitted out cause of chinese ny. Later we were heading home as we heard nothing was going on just family stuff. When it turned midnight we heard fireworks so ran out of our hotel (kind of annoyed with people telling us nothing's going on) walked down our road and everyone was saying happy new year to us, smiling and waving, stood outside everyy shop, hotel, house there was a table with incense, candles, fairy lights, chocolates, flowers and cakes? Walked to the river and got a full view of the fire works with a massive crown - amazing. Almost as good as gandalfs fireworks :) They went on for about 20 minutes and everyone stopped, no traffic, just people standing and scooters stood still watching. As soon as they stopped the traffic started again back to normal. After the fireworks we went into the nearest pagoda, people were lighting incense and bowing to the buddha (keep seeing buddha's outside peoples front door sat amonst disco fairy lights!) Started walking home and people were pouring tea at their tables and throwing some unidentified liquid onto the street infront o their home. They were all bowing and whispering things aswell. Not quite sure what all these things mean but they seem to enjoy it.

23rd Jan- Happy New (lunar) Year!

Left our hotel after a lie in(well it is new years day) Walked aaaall the way to the beach (10km there and back) On the way we walked through what felt like a really local side of Hoi An, walked alongside the river and the water filled fields, saw some shacks on stilts. Got to the beach and it was full of hundreds of palm trees, the beach aparntly goes all the way to Danang (11 hour drive away) It was the windiest day ever so we didn't even sit down, by the time we got home we were so tired! Had dinner beside the river again this time at a restaurant decorated with mould and milk jugs included cobwebs.

24th Jan - Bye Hoi An - really loved it here such beautiful little streets, anyone that comes to vietnam should deffinatly come here!

Had our bus to Nha Trang. Got told we had a pick up from the hotel when they arrived I was like - were's the car? OH were getting on the back of scooters through the hectic streets. Felt pretty risky but was the most fun pick up ever! Thought we had the bus pretty much to ourselves but people were sleeping on the floor in the end - so packed!