Hellooooo,

Well we were pretty chuffed with the hotel we booked here. For $15 dollars a night we had a private room and access to a nice pool, luxury for us.

That night we went for a nice walk around the town and got some really nice food from a restaurant in the old town.
The following morning we rented some bicycles to see more of the old town. We cycled around for an hour or so, through all the old narrow streets. Hoi An is a really peaceful place, it reminds us of Luang Probang in Laos. There are so many tailors here though, almost every second shop seems to be one. After another ace meal for lunch we decided to head to the nearby beach. It was a Sunday and it was packed with Vietnamese kids. It was a nice beach but not a patch on the China beach we stopped at on our road trip. That night we took our bikes back to the old town to grab some food, again another excellent meal. We booked a tour for the following morning to Cham Island, which is an island an hour away that is supposed to be amazing and really good for snorkeling, so we were excited.

We got up nice an early and were waiting at 8am ready for Cham Island. Only to be told the bus had forgotten our pick up and the boat had already left, so we had to book for the following day. A bit annoyed we decided to rent a moped and go to My Son, which is an hour away and has some ancient ruins that is a must see when in Hoi An. Since it was midday when we arrived and most people go in the morning it was nice and quiet. Again, it was extremely hot walking around. But the ruins were worth seeing.

That night we did our usual and went to the old town for some tea. We were lucky as it was a full moon and its a big celebration in Hoi An, probably the whole of Vietnam. There were heaps of people selling paper baskets with candles in it which you could set off into the river. This is supposed to bring you luck. So we both bought a basket for 10,000 (later found it was supposed to be 3,000. We got scammed 30p haha) made a wish and set it off to float down the river. It was beautiful to see the river lit up with all the candles with the moon shining bright above it. We were pretty lucky to see it.

On the way home we stopped at a book store so Shay could swap her book for some new reading material. There was two Vietnamese ladies working there who were so friendly, we got talking to them for a while. They were both really interested in our travels and we both realised if it ever goes wrong with us, we will both be fine in Vietnam and they couldn't get over how handsome Jonny was when he smiled and what a nice body Shay has with very nice legs haha.

The next morning we finally got to go to Cham Island. We took a speedboat across and then got taken to a pagoda on the island and then to the market before we went snorkeling. We had been on the island for abour 2 hours and seemed to have been waiting around a lot more than actually doing anything. When we got in the water to do some snorkeling we were a bit disappointed, there weren't really any fish to see and the corals were not all that great either. We seen a star fish which was about it really. Shay promptly got out of the water after she got stung by a jellyfish on the wrist. While Jonny continued to jump off the boat into the water. We had some lunch on the beach before heading back to our hotel. We were a bit disappointed with our Cham Island visit. We didn't seem to do much at all and expected a lot more from the snorkeling.

When we got back to the hotel, we had one hour to get showered and freshened up before our 6 hour bus journey to Quy Nhon.

Hoi An has been one of our favourite places in Vietnam so far, such a nice town.

Now off to Quy Nhon.

J+B