A few days in Hoi An

We spent the last 5 nights in Hoi An. Not an awful lot to report - but will add some stuff soon.

Tonight we get on a bus for the 12 hour overnight journey to Nha Trang, further down the coast. The bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An arrived today 6 hours late due to flooding on the roads. We're keeping a close eye on the weather but it's difficult to get accurate information. The bus is a sitting bus so it's going to be a LONG journey!

*ADDED NOTES BELOW*

We ended up staying in Hoi An for 5 nights in the end although I'm not entirely sure why. It's a lovely place and all but we haven't actually done much looking back, having said that it has rained for pretty much the entire time we were there. We pottered, went out during dry intervals for something to eat and that's about it. There are some pictures of Hoi An, but as some of the areas were flooded we didn't end up taking loads.

One thing we did mange to do was to order some clothes and shoes. Not much mind, for various reasons including the fact that it actually turned out to be quite hard work. Once we had decided on a couple of tailor shops we sat down and were shown pattern books; we were told we could even draw clothes they would make. Interestingly, one of the staple 'pattern books' they used was the Next directory. That plus the glossy magazines which as a general rule I tend to avoid. I did ponder showing them a picture of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt or some such A list celebrities (I say this dryly as I hate the concept of celebrity and the status they seem to hold) looking stunning in some flashy designer labelled outfits (I also actually don't get designer clothes and accessories either and find them, for the most part - and this is just my opinion -entirely pointless and excessively over-priced). However I refrained from this pretty certain that no matter what clothes you put me and Matt in, we ain't ever going to look like Angelina and Brad. Anyway, Matt had some trousers made and I had some trousers, 2 skirts and a pair of shoes. The shoes were average but OK for $10. The rest of the clothes came to about $40. We ended up having to return 3 times as each time they needed some altering but we are reasonably happy with the end result.

This evening we boarded the overnight sitting bus to Nha Trang. I say 'sitting' bus as opposed to the sleeper bus we got to Hue. For some reason there are no sleeper buses to Nha Trang and the journey is only ever overnight. These buses run everyday and we had heard from people who had arrived in from Nha Trang that due to flooding on the roads their ordinarily uncomfortable 12 hour journey actually became a hellishly uncomfortable 18 hour journey. A grim prospect. We've been keeping a close eye on the weather as there are rumours of a typhoon - Peipah - approaching Vietnam from the Philippines. We can't get any accurate information about it though.

The bus journey was quite difficult; it was full and the seats had that plasticky (don't think that's a word) covering rather than fabric. The roads were mainly through towns; Vietnam doesn't have much in the way of motorways. Between the potholes in the roads and incessant beeping and sharp braking, not much sleep was had. I managed perhaps 4 hours while Matt got about 2. We came to a stop at 2.30am and the lights came on; we were in the middle of nowhere at a really dingy roadside café. The drivers needed to eat; some others ate too. We amused ourselves watching the various rats and lizards go about their usual nocturnal lives. Fortunately we didn't encounter any of the flooding so the journey took around 12 hours.

We arrived in Nha Trang this morning and wearily checked out a few hotels before plumping for a smart room for $12.