J: On the journey from Dalat Sam started to feel unwell, by half way she had it exploding from both ends, she joined the brown club.

So once we arrived at Hoi An we got in our room and I went out for breakfast on my own, found a great street with loads of food venders, normally I pick the busy place but accidentally picked the woman with no customers, but once I sat down every seat was full within a couple of minutes. It was a new type of noodle soup local to Vietnam, which had shrimp, BBQ pork, & quail eggs that was so tasty. Later on Sam was feeling up to a walk so we went around the local market in the 'Old Town' it's an area which was spared by the war and is still original, it's all so beautiful.

S: 19 hours on a bus, having sickness and diarrhea is no fun I can tell you!! But after 48 hours I was all good again and ready to rock and roll!

We booked up a cookery course, as we had heard it was good to do one here. Next morning Mr K had the bug and a chest infection! But he soldered on, and although he didn't eat anything at the cooking class it was great and very enjoyable. Our guide was very helpful and took me to the pharmacy to buy antibiotics I wanted for James, so sometimes it pays to have a guide lol. In the afternoon, we went souvenir shopping. I ended up having my legs and eyebrows threaded, hmm a slightly painful experience, maybe not to be repeated.

J: Apparently blood in my phlegm meant I needed medicine, I still think I could have beat it alone. But at least I didn't join the brown club lol.

So while Sam was having her legs and eyebrows done I went to get a bracelet I wanted, I had to have it made bigger so sat with the local lady while she did this and was having a laugh with her. Then a customer came along and I went into sales mode and got her nearly double the price she wanted, she loved me for it and gave me extra elastic just incase any of my brackets snapped. When I went to check on the threading situation I decided I wanted to help so the lady taught me how and I thought it was hilarious fun, but then the lady showed me on my leg.... Damn it hurt!

So I moved over to another local store and talked to a lady named Ti who was doing a cross stitch picture for her home, she wanted me to have a go so after teaching me for a few minutes I was like a pro, she loved it as apparently it will bring her house luck, and me, as it was a Buddha picture, she even went and bought us milk bottle sweets as a thank you, I love Vietnam!

S: Honestly I had to drag James away from the cross stitching lol!! We decided to visit Mŷ Son sanctuary and rented a bike for the day from a Mrs Hoá, who made sure we were safe and knew where we were going. The ride was lovely and being able to explore Vietnam on a back of a bike was great, the place is really beautiful. Mŷ Son were temples built between the 4th and 10th century, and had the longest occupancy by any dynasty. The war again, played a part and from the American carpet bombings there were a lot of structural damage and giant craters dotted all around.

J: We stayed around Hoi An for an extra night as they had a big full moon festival, we were simply lucky to be there at this time to be able to enjoy it and some people even arrange flights to see it. All the locals burn things out side their houses, then they throw rice and salt on the street as their offering to the world for good luck in their homes.

The river was crowded with people placing floating candles on the river and colourful lanterns were alight everywhere. It was a beautiful night strolling the street and across the Japanese bridges.