Good morning Vietnam,

Well we have been very busy spending all our money and are now in Hoi An, a town famed for its craft shops and tailors.

When we last left you we had arrived in Nha Trang and were going out for Katie's birthday. We had booked a table at The Sailing Club for dinner and as we had to book and given its name you can probably imagine we had upgraded a little from our usual street food for the evening. It was lovely and certainly one of the nicest places we had eaten in for quite some time. We all treated ourselves and had some amazing food and some flashy cocktails to celebrate. The restaurant even gave Katie a complementary 'stripy' cocktail because it was her birthday. It made for a very relaxed evening, on the way back, after eating far too much, we all set off to backpacker part of town were our hotel was. Katie and I just headed back while Rich and Gemma went out to sample some more of Vietnam's nightlife at the notorious Red Apple Club. Luckily for all of us, while out they found out a website that allowed you to bypass Vietnam's facebook ban although I'm not sure they were that bowled over by the nightlife opportunities!

The following day which was the day of Katie's actually birthday was quite chilled out affair. We all had a bit of a lay-in before spending the middle part of the day sunning ourselves on the beach, and eventually finding ourselves back at the Sailing Club having a drink in the afternoon on their comfortable beach facing sofas. A bit later on we headed back to the hotel to have a quick shower, pack and change before going for dinner. As we were due to get on a sleeper bus overnight we had intended to go for a proper dinner so we wouldn't feel hungry. We had seen a place called Veranda the night before so decide we would check that out. The food was almost as good as The Sailing Club the previous night and the garlic bread was amazing, so much so Gemma and Rich even had a second course of it after dinner.

The bus journey that evening was very interesting, we had booked a sleeper bus which has proper beds as opposed to the normal reclining seat and are used for very long journeys, so we were dreading it slightly less than normal. As the journey was supposed to be 12 hour overnight at first we were quite thankful for the beds, but it was only when we got on the bus we realised how small these beds really were that we quickly changed our minds. They made our beds on the boat in Indonesia seem king-size; it was clearly not designed for anyone taller than 5 ft 2. We also hadn't factored on the bus driving being slightly suicidal, every corner we went around we all held our breath with how close he got to other trucks and buses at speed. Eventually (very reluctantly) we got used to his driving and started to settle down waking only for big bumps in the road. Apart from being a little hot (unusual for and Asian bus) the rest bus journey was quite uneventful, but I luckily slept through most of it. Once we arrived in Hoi An it was all a little too easy, with the bus dropping us off right near the centre of town and outside a nice and cheap hotel (it even has a pool).

Hoi An as I mentioned above is known for its crafts and tailoring and is a world heritage listed town. We had seen it on Top Gear and heard good things, so we were quite excited to explore the town and haven't been too disappointed so far. After speaking to quite a few other travellers who have been here before and because of its reputation, all four of us had decide we would get at least one item of clothing made while we are here. This meant the first task was for us all to find a good tailor who we trusted and produced quality clothes. It wasn't too difficult to find one because there are hundreds of them here and one of first ones we visited proved to be the best. Every time we have walked past since it has been packed so hoping for good things.

We all sat down and spent over an hour choosing the styles we wanted, the fabric, the lining, and even the buttons if you wanted before being measured up. As part of the process we had to sit for ages trawling through magazines and computer images of designer suits and dresses till we decided what we wanted and they basically copy the design. We have only asked for a couple of pieces to start with to see if the quality is good but given the clothes they had on display and the ones others were wearing it looks hopeful. They have an incredible turn around here and can make suits from scratch in 24 hours so we are all due to visit tomorrow for our second fitting, fingers crossed. The reason people get suits and dresses made here the is value for money; you can get a full tailored suit for about £80 so we can see quite a lot more money being spent before we leave!

Once we had placed our orders and were all sized up we wandered a bit more around town to find lunch. The town is very old fashioned and has a lot of Chinese influence in its design and architecture so to get around you spend a lot of time cutting through narrow alleyways. We eventually came out by the river that flows through the centre of town and spotted a restaurant advertising 4000 dong beers (4000 dong = 11p) so we were straight in. We had heard about 10 cent beers from other travellers but this was the closest we had found and we need to soften the blow of spending all our money in the tailors. The food here was not bad either and we quickly ate our way through a couple of dishes of Wontons and Spring rolls.

We did attempt to go for an afternoon walk around town but this was quite short lived because it was so hot, we kept hopping in and out of shops/the odd bakery (where we had dessert, rude not too) taking full advantage of their fans/aircon! After an hour or so we quickly headed back to the hotel and were lying in its pool in no time.

In the evening we headed out for dinner and a few drinks; we initially went back to our faithful 4000 dong a beer restaurant for a few drinks and were delighted to find that the river outside was all lit up at night. We did know that this was part of the tradition and charm of Hoi An before we came but it looked lovely and the town was certainly much busier at night. We stayed for a few drinks then wandered around to find somewhere to eat and eventually settle for a cheaper backpacker place but it had good looking food and pool tables at the back so we had something to eat then had a game of pool over a few beers. We were all awful so the game took ages but it was good fun. We then tried in vain to find a few busier bars later in the evening but just gave up and headed back to the hotel.

Today we planning on having another chilled day and have the second fitting of our clothes so will get to see them almost completed! Hoping for a good day!

Will let you know how we get on and if we all have spent our money on suits with sleeves that are too long and dresses that don't zip up!

Lots of love

Martin, Katie, Gemma and Rich