By the time we had arrived in Hoi An it was already night time so we dropped our stuff off and headed straight out for dinner. The town is so beautiful and is located right next to a river. While we were walking around we notice little lights floating down the river and realised they were candles. We had always wanted to see this and it was the most picturesque sight. You can buy them from children and place them into colourful, waterproof paper and float them down the river yourselves.

We woke up the next morning excited about seeing Hoi An in the daylight. It didn't disappoint. This is definitely the most beautiful place we have been in Vietnam. The architecture is again in a French style, but its a lot smaller and more enclosed than anywhere else we had seen. Literally every shop is a tailor and they will make anything for you. Laura and Sarah had a field day and spent the entire day going from shop to shop.

In some of the markets they have little beauty salons, which basically consists of a slab of concrete and a plastic chair. But for a dollar you can get a pedicure and manicure! Laura and Sarah both took advantage of this, along with having their eye brows threaded. Its crazy to think of how much this would all cost back home.

That afternoon the girls headed back for some sleep (those buses really take it out of you!) while the lads hired bikes and headed off to the beach. The beach is about seven kilometres away along a quiet road. The beach itself is really pretty, lined with palm trees and fairly quiet. Once the lads were back we decided that would be our destination for the next day.

That night we headed back into Hoi An for dinner and found that it was the full moon festival. We had no idea that we were there during it. There was lots of singing and dancing and more candles floating down the river. Laura and Sarah decided to send their own down, and even successfully did it without falling in. That night was so beautiful, Hoi An is definitely a place worth visiting.

The next morning we all hired bikes and headed off to the beach. We stopped for lunch in a restaurant and saw our first live snake (seen a few dead ones now!). It was fairly big too and was slivering towards our table, pretty cool.

The rest of the day was spent playing on the beach. The lads bought a football and spent the whole afternoon with the local kids playing football games. It is really amazing to meet these local people and just chat to them. In Hoi An we met so many lovely people and its really incredible learning about how different their lives are. One Vietnamese girl had the most perfect English and spoke with an Australian accent that we think she got by watching Neighbours. It was the most bizarre mix!

The next day we headed back to the shops for some final purchases before heading off on the next night bus to Nha Trang. This is when the lads decided to get their own silk shorts tailor made. As you can imagine they are horrible, especially as they spent a long time trying to find the worst pattern as possible. But them seem very happy with them!

We boarded our final night bus ready for our next journey to Nha Trang that evening. We loved Hoi An and are really disappointed to be leaving so soon. Its the prettiest place we've seen in Vietnam so far and has such a lovely feel to it.