Hi all,

Hoi An was a really nice town, very pretty. All the lanterns and decorations helped that were out for Tat I suppose. We got dropped off a little out of town but we were soon ladened with our bags and stomping back into town. All the kids must have been leaving for their new year holidays as we passed a school and thousands of kids (and I'm not joking) were piling out with party style hats on. It was a carnival atmosphere. All the pavements were chocka block with flowers, plants, small decorative trees, bonzai's and especially orange (the fruit tree) trees.

Once we found some accommodation we dropped off the bags and had a look round town. There was a really nice feel about the place and as I said in my last entry, Hoi An is the tailor made clothes shopping Mecca of the world. Every other shop was a cloth shop. We made it to the river which was a really smart part of town. The way I would describe it would be like the back street of main land Spain that I have been to. Lots of art galleries selling oil paintings and quality restaurants in a none snobby way. Just quaint and cool. I managed to part with some Ding too, buying four canvas paintings.

Shortly after purchasing my paintings and looking around another art gallery, there was a right commotion in the street. A local women was going nuts and shouting god knows what down the alley way. Before we knew it, it was time to take cover as she flung an empty litre bottle of Vodka down the street. Still screaming at the top of her voice a bolder followed at this invisible enemy! We were asking the shop owner what she was saying but all we could make out is that (we think) another local stole something from her stall. Still going for it with a flip flop this time, four men all in blue came from nowhere, tied her hands up behind her back and carried her away. Peace and tranquility was restored......... random!!

That night we went to dinner with a women we had met on the bus called Katrina. The next day was going to be a beach day and it was long overdue !!

We hired the rubbishest (not a word - but I like it) we could find and cycled down to the beach which was 4km away. It was a nice little journey but I was getting saddle sore after 5 minutes. It had been a while since I had been on a bicycle!! Wow - the beach was stunning!! and pretty secluded too as there weren't many people around at all. We all settled down for the day and fried like all good british people abroad. We were consistently approached by the Vietnamese locals that walked the beach selling massages, pedicures, manicures, fruit etc. Becki and Cat ended up having Pedicures - nice. Becki had smurf blue and Kat went for gold - lovely. That evening I watched the football while the girls did something else. Peace at last......

The next day was again a relaxing day at the beach but we hired better bikes this time. Travelling in style and all that. Again it was a really nice day of soaking up the sun and read my book. Before we cycled back to town I ended up buying a large canvas painting - it's well nice (well I think so anyway). It was back for a shower before heading to the travel agents to catch the overnight bus to Nha Trang.

Bye for now

Miffy x x x