The mini bus stopped on a small road in Hoi An so we walked around to try and find a guest house. The town is really pretty with small roads and beautiful buildings with wooden shutters. It's very french/chinese with a ancient port. As we walked along the river, there was a morning food market with loads of locals hurrying around picking bunches of herbs and buying bags of fresh sea fish.

We continued walking around the town to try and find a guesthouse and when Daniel popped into the fluro green mini mart a man approached me advertising a hotel with wifi and a pool for $10 so we followed him a minute down the road. When we approached it looked a bit pricey as it was an open plan hotel with rooms around the pool. The pool is outside behind the wall separating the road and the hotel, it's not the biggest but it's still a pool!

We messaged Darryl to let him know we had arrived while u packing and cleaning our teeth. Daniel had enquired about scooter rental at reception and a woman came to our room saying she had a scooter for us, which we didn't really want. We gathered some bits and bobs to send back to london in a canvas bag to head to the post office and followed the woman to the bike.

We both got on and slowly drove towards the gate of our hotel until there was a gap in the traffic but we didn't stop. We drove into the road and hit the side of a bus but i quickly jumped off. Daniel ended up on the floor with the bike and said the breaks didn't work, which thwy didn't. The bike rental woman came over looking at the bike and we were angry trying to tell her the brakes are rubbish and the guy who was in the minibus also got out to inspect the invisivle damage done to his bus. There was me and Daniel and a crowd of vietnamese. The man kept asking for money to fix the bus although there was not a scratch on it so we said the woman should pay as she gave us a bike with terrible brakes.

It was a situation that i wished i wasn't in, i just wanted to leave. We had the woman hounding us for money as we "damaged" her bike and the mini bus man just waiting for us to give him money. It was all a bit overwhelming and i just wanted to cry. After a lot of arguing with the locals we decided to just give the minibus man 300,000 for "damage" (he had asked for 500,000 before to which i laughed at).

When he left i was adament we were not paying to fix the bike as it wasn't out fault. The worse thing was she was blaming us saying we got nervous so went onto the road when surely braking would have been the first reaction. She threatened to call the police and i told her to. There's no way we should have to pay for the bike when the breaks aren't working. While arguing with her on the road a middle aged aussie man drove up to us on his bike to see if we were okay. I explained what had happened and he had a look at the bike and said the disc was stiff, probably from when the bike hit the side of the bus. The situation was getting nowhere, we shouldn't have to pay for the bike but we were outnumbered by locals and her niece even joined us to help translate. The aussia advised we just take it to the mechanic instead of calling the police so to save the hassle, thats what we did.

He came with us round the corner with the bike and even as Daniel was wheeling it along the breaks still wouldn't work. Shocking. I had a chat with the aussia about his trip so far and how he got to Sapa and things to see until he left us. The mechanic took apart the front of the bike to inspect the damage and turns out we need a part which he didn't have in Hoi An and would have to go to Danang for( a town 30kmn away) which would cost us 1,000000. This is when i started crying. How could we be so unlucky for this to happen to us?!

We left the mechanic to go to the ATM for cash and on the way i bought a small can of saigon as i felt i needed one. My right shin got a bit scraped from the bike which hurt a little to walk on. We went to the atm and dan ran back to give him the money while i sat outside the minimart still trying to get to grips with what just happened. I feel so cheated.

When we returned we continued down the road to the post office. We put all our items in a box and filled out some forms. It cost us around $40 to send by land which would take three months to be delivered but we are thankful for the extra room in our bags! We left the post office and headed to a cafe where we sat outside under an umbrella,'i ordered an iced vietnamese coffee. Daniel messaged Darryl to let him know where we are and we chilled out people watching until he came waltzing over in his snakey manner looking like he'd been out last night. He laughed at us being in a high end place but i told him we deserved it and went on to explain the fiasco this morning.

Once we paid up, we walked with Darryl to get 10p fresh beer. We went passed loads of street food stalls and henpointed out the place to buy baguettes for 10,000D which is $50 so we all got one. I got mine with cheese and darryl got a mixture of meat stuff. Both tasted delicious,'especially for the price. We continued down the small road, passing many cyclists and motorists until we got to the cafe with the cheap beer. We sat down and had a big catch up with a glass of the fresh brew.

We were later joined by an American called Philipp who Darryl has been chilling out with. He sat down with us at the table and brought out his macbook air. I sat with him while he showed me different styles and fabrics because he's planning to have a few suits made here as it's notorious for exactly that. There are around 300/500 tailor shops in the small town, all with beautiful dresses and sharp suits outside. We went through lots of images and he had them all in different folders which i thought was funny. The American (as Darryl calls him) left to go somewhere and would come back to meet us in 30 minutes. We were joined by the residential pug dog which would sniff around our feet every so often. Also, in the way to the toilet there's a big pink fish in a tank which follows you with it's eyes, creepy. When Philipp came back, we settled the bill. We had around 6 beers each but they don't seem very strong and i felt pretty sober still. Philipp suggested getting some street food so he directed us to go left at the "intersection" (so american) so the three of us followed his directions while he sped off on his bike.

We lost him for a while so walked back and the place we had placed to meet was closed so we ended up at a different stool which only serves two dishes; Ci Lau and Mi Quang. Darryl and I didn't get anything to eat buy when Dan's and Philipps came it looked lovely. Dan got Ci lau, thick udon noodles with a broth made from special water from a well in the town ( the dish cannot be made without this water apparently) there were loads of greens as well as sliced pork and crunchy pork scratchings. Philipp had Mi Quang which was similar
But with slightly thinner noodles and shrimp and quail egg instead of the pork. While they were eating me and Darryl decided we were now hungry so popped over the road to the 108 baguette stall.

After the food we decided to pick up from someone and both Darryl and Philipp had connections as they've been here for a while now (3 weeks and 1 week). We went to a bar called "Moe's" which has a photo of moe from the Simpsons outside. Philipp approached the young boy working there and he said the weed man would be back in around 10 minutes so we took a walk around the block. When we came back the weed guy was there, we nicknamed him Jaws as he looks like the famous villain from James Bond: scary but somehow still slightly camp. He was selling 1 gram for $5 and Philipp said it was very good stuff. We handed over the money and he went home on his bike to pick up the green and drop it back. We then headed to darryl's room to smoke.

He'd been raving about how nice his room was but it's nothing on our hotel and he's paying the same money! When we got in, he gave me iodine solution to put on my graze to stop infection. I sat on his bed and rolled a super joint with two skins and it blew us all away. Neither of us had been this high from anything else in Asia, it's like the weed we get back home. Daniel looked so unbelievably high which entertained us for a while. Darryl was he usual stoned self and was constantly smiling to himself, you could barely see his eyes either. It took us ages to smoke and we were all completely baked from it which was funny as we didn't expect to get so high. Dan and I went back to our hotel to shower and change to meet darryl back at the same coffee place later on.

We got back and had a shower and changed then left to meet Darryl at the same "highlands coffee shop" as earlier. We decided to walk through the old town and over the bridge to where there are bars and food. When we stepped out of the alley and onto the port i was amazed at how beautiful it was. The bridge was lit up in yellow which reflected off the water on the river. There were locals selling pretty boxes made of card with candles inside to let float on the river. The atmosphere was busy with people going to bars and offering donuts off stalls but still somewhat peaceful.

We walked passed a lot of the main bars like backpacker bar and infinity round the bend to a street food place. We were handed menus and the lady said different menu different family so maybe they were all competing with each other for business. We ordered three fresh beers to start and i went for vegetable noodle soup (pho). My dish came first by a man carrying it over from across the road. Daniel's and Darryl's food came from a completely different direction so that confused us a bit. The food was so yummy, the vegetables had been sauteed instead of boiled which gave more flavour to the soup, also a little oil but it was so delicious. The boys enjoyed their food as well. Once we paid for the food we headed to infinity bar for a drink.

They had an offer on so if you're a group of three or more you get a free shisha and also if you order a beer, you get a free rum and coke: you really can't complain!! The shisha was nice and it had been ages since i'd had some. The rum tasted a bit like vomit so i gave Darryl the pleasure of drinking mine. Two people came in who Darryl had met and spoken about, a swiss girl called Alexia and a dutch man called Tom. They joined us at our table and said that they unknowingly ate dog today. They sat down at a street food place and were given noodle soup with meat and it was only when Tom said he didn't recognise the bones that they asked the woman what it was. Alexia enjoyed the dog however!

Once we were pretty merry from infinity bar, we crossed over the bridge and headed near to where our hotel is to a "club" called "Volcano". When we walked in i was expecting loud music and a room full of smoke and people but as we went through the doors, we were the only ones there! They have a deal that you pay 60,000D and drink all you want until around 02:00am, so you can get absolutely w***ered on $3.

We all went to the bar to get a drink. Dan and I got a bottle of larue and Saigon while Darryl took advantage of the offer and started off with a gin and lemonade. As there were four of us and no one using the pool table we decided to have a game. Dan and I on one team, and Darryl and Alexia on the other. It was comical watching darryl show her how to hold a que, any excuse to get close to her but she has a boyfriend so Darryl may be fighting of losing battle. We played two games of pool, we lost both but only just! It got to around 03:00am (this happened quickly) and we left Volcano when they shut off the music and were gesturing for us to leave. Darryl was adamant to finish the game and reminded us how many times we had to stay late because of customers at balans.

When we eventually left, the roads were completely dead. There were maybe one or two motorbikes we'd pass as well as lots of rats and cockroaches. We said goodnight to Alexia and unfortunately for Darryl, so did he. We walked back up to our hotel and said goodnight to Darryl. We vaguely made plans to go to the beach but we didn't want to rent a bike and i wasn't sure if my leg would be okay to cycle as its a bit swollen and sore. We got back to the room and watched some of the film "two brothers" before falling asleep.