Dear Diary,

It's been a while since I gave my last update, so here goes....

Arrived in a flooded Hoi An about 5pm after a fairly non eventful bus journey. Met up with the gang again & stayed at a really nice hotel (pool, spa, free tinternet all for just under 4 pound a night!!).

Not much to do in Hoi An apart from get some clothes made & buy gifts. Got myself 2 suits (with extra trousers), 4 shirts & 3 pairs of shorts for the grand total of 200 pound!! Was a bit worried about the fitting as had heard bad things from some people (not with the place I went to, but it seems hard to know who is any good). All went ok though & only the trousers needed taking in a bit (I am sure I have since filled out enough that I didn't need to get them done..!!).

My original plan was to stay here for 2 to 3 days max, however despite the lack of things to do (the constant rain & floods didn't help much) ended up staying for 6 days. The place has got such a good vibe about it & seems to be a longer stop off point for those travelling south as well as north.

You wont be surprised to here that we found a really good bar (Before & Now) that was packed every night. Met up with new people & some old friends from Hanoi which was really cool.

Found a really nice restaurant near the hotel that I frequented fairly often & got to know the owner & those that worked there. Had such a laugh with that the owner & his sister offered to take me out on the town for food, drinks & karaoke!! Unfortunately I just didn't have the time.

Ended up going to the most bizarre late night drinking venue one night (King Kong) that all it had in the room was a pool table (with just enough room around it for 3 people in a line) & a bar! When we walked in they were playing some form of dance music, people were playing pool not with the lights on but with strobe lighting - should have guessed at that point it was an odd place!!

Also went to a pool party (as in swimming) another night. Got there about 11.30pm & ended up getting a moped taxi home at about 5am!! They were selling buckets of vodka & red bull, yep that's right buckets! There are some great pictures of me in the pool (I was 1 of only about 7 people that actually went in!) with my bucket of drink floating & me drinking it - am trying to get hold of them from the people that took the pictures! A great night was had by all.

The weather only starting getting better on my final day which was a shame as it would have been nice to see the place & surrounding areas in good weather!!

Next main stop is Dalat (home of the Easy Rider). You can get the bus but that takes about 18 hours - not a tempting thought, so I got a plane to Saigon & then a plane to Dalat (only cost 40 pounds in total). It also gave me the opportunity to say a final goodbye to the girls & blokes I've spent most of my time with, as they were already in Saigon.