We left Hue on Thursday afternoon. We were picked up by a minivan in which there were about 12 of us and all of our luggage crammed into a space big enough for about 6. Luckily this was only for the ride to the tour office where we had to wait a further half hour for the bus to arrive. The bus to Hoi An only took 3 and a half hours but it was a fairly uncomfortable journey due to the air conditioning on the bus being almost non existent and the sleeper beds being made for tiny people. We were so happy that it was only a short journey.
We arrived in Hoi An around 5.30pm and checked into our hostel which is actually a Homestay which seem to be popular in Hoi An. After quick showers, we made our way into the old town which is quaint with loads of old buildings which look as though they have been restored. We grabbed some food down near the river which is picturesque at night with all of the lanterns lit up along the sides of the river.
On Friday, we decided to hire bikes from our hostel and cycle to the beach. The beach is about 5km away from our hostel and was quite a nice ride as the roads weren't too busy. We hired sunbeds on the beach and Beth was in her absolute element as this was our first beach since Krabi in Thailand about 6 weeks ago. The old women who constantly walk back and forth along the beach trying to sell their wares to the tourists are canny annoying but they eventually give up after 5 or 6 'no thank you's'. On Friday night, we headed into town to check out whether I could get a suit made. Hoi An is famous for the amount of tailors which are here and the amount of tailor shops is amazing. I had read about a particular tailors online so we headed there to see what their prices are like. I did like a particular material but they wanted $180 for a full suit and the women was unwilling to budge on the price. I could have got a suit for a lot cheaper but I wanted to make sure it was decent and would last when we got home so unfortunately I had to say no. We then went for some tea at a nice restaurant before getting some beers at the shop and watching The Hangover back in the room.
Today, we booked our bus to our next destination, Nha Trang for Thursday which will be another overnight bus. We then went into the old quarter and bought a ticket which allows you to visit five sites within the old quarter for 120,000 dong (about £4). We visited a couple of the sites and the Japanese covered bridge before grabbing an excellent dinner at a cafe by the river. We had been told by our hosts that the police would be visiting the hostel today for some reason which we could not fathom. They had said that they would need to look in our room so we returned back to the hostel and all of our stuff had been put into the wardrobe as if the hostel were trying to hide that we were staying here. They had also put kids covers onto the bed and when we returned the cleaner promptly came in and took them off. We aren't sure what the whole charade was about but the police still haven't came and we still haven't had an explanation off the hostel. Baffling!!