Hoi An...well...beautiful. It's like going back in time, we spent hours after arriving booking the remaining Vietnam trip due to so far never being able to get the transport we want.So much so we've had to settle for one journey (11 hours overnight) on a seat rather than bed, let's see how that goes next week. So to save hassle we are officially sorted! Hoi An's sunshine feels the hottest yet, even when we headed out at 4:30pm. On the way we grabbed a drink with some very friendly locals, tasted like grass (have since found out it was sugar cane) but very refreshing and then walking along the river, over the bridge (we are based in CamNam) the old town truly is beautiful, over two hundred tailor shops, all sorts of pottery shops, souvenirs, street food.
After sweating approximately 10'litres haha we stopped for some cold beers, met a lovely Vietnamese waitress (YumYum) who gave us the lowdown on well...everything haha. So afterwards Katie headed to a recommended tailor and got measured up while Andrew...watched, bored. We came to Hoi An for the monthly Lunar event, Hoi An Legendary Light festival, which was definitely worth it. Very busy but lanterns lit everywhere floating down the river, boats and shop lanterns lit in all colours, shapes sizes, it was a dream come true, we took a row boat down the river at dusk and released our own floating candles before ending the night with a 5 dollar each, all you can drink! Let's see how the morning turns out haha (considering were booked in a cooking course for 8:30am!)

We made it for breakfast on the terrace which was lovely but our driver turned up half an hour early so we wrapped up our baguettes and ate them en route. We picked up the others on our tour and then headed straight to the local market to buy the produce for the cooking. It's great to learn about all the Vietnamese veg and fruit! We then walked to the river and got a long boat down the river. Our guide on the way made rings out of banana leaves, very sweet and then after around 20 minutes we pulled up to 3 bamboo boats, (please see pictures) these were amazing we ended up racing down the mangroves at the end towards our stop the Eco Coconut Tour. Upon arrival we had an iced tea and nice cool towel which was well needed. We then did some fishing(with no success for either of us haha) and then played a game of Smashing the pot blindfolded to which Andrew was the only one who succeeded, it's the Vietnam version of a piñata!
We then headed to a lovely bamboo kitchen where we met the chef Binh, who was great. The dishes we cooked were Pork Spring Rolls, Papaya, Pork and Shrimp Salad, Vietnamese Pancake and Pork in a clay pot! All very tasty but we are feeling since arriving in Vietnam a lot of the food seems to be quite heavily deep fried!
Mid afternoon we said our goodbyes and returned to our hotel. We freshened up and then went for another dress fitting, on the way back another dress was also spotted, and with a bit of bartering halved the price. Then it was food time but we weren't too hungry after the all the food we'd had on our cooking class so just stopped at a small street side bar selling beers for 5000dong (15p) and a bite to eat. We then had a stroll back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep.

The following day we had decided to rent some scooters and headed off to Marble Mountains. Obviously neither of us had ever driven anything other than a car haha so it was pretty nerve racking but we soon got into it and were on our way. Marble Mountains were well worth the ride. With deep caves and sculptures carved into them and pagodas at the tops of the mountains. It was truly spectacular but one of the hottest days yet, a perfect day for Katie to tear her cambi pants haha huge hole right through the crotch, the decision was do you insult people and Buddah with your arse out or cover your hole with your top and have your boobs out in a skimpy vest, haha we went for the latter and had no more stares than usual! We then decided we'd head back into Hoi An as neither of us fancied the beach, and we were getting pretty hungry so we walked into town along the river collected two beautifully handmade dresses before eating...again. It seems like food is all we tell you about haha!

Well what a day, we write this as we sit on the train from Danang to Dong Hoi, surrounded by small Vietnamese children who definitely know how to stare, haha but can have a laugh too at least. The build up to the journey was not the smoothest you could say. First up the hotels machine would not take our MasterCard so Katie jumped on the back of the managers scooter and whizzed to the bank only to discover they were closed.(Nearly all ATM's in Vietnam have a limit of 2million, sounds a lot but it's only £60, and each time you withdraw its costing around £4) so after two transactions and a scoot back at least we could pay the hotel. We then had a taxi back to Danang to catch our 2:13pm train. Knowing the banks opened at 1:30pm Katie went on a quick mission to get cash, 5 banks later and only being told no withdrawal, the last option with 25min to go was jumping on the back of a motorbike and going to a main bank branch, seemed great until the passport and card name were different (marriage tut ;-)) haha so with ten minutes to go, motorbike dude did a major whizz back to Andrew and the luggage only to discover the train was delayed by two hours haha. So with a transfer to Andrews account, off he went only to be told he could only withdraw a smaller amount, but at least we finally have enough to last us through Vietnam. As I'm sure that's bored you all to death after a further half hour delay we just had a beautiful journey at sunset through the High Van Pass, which made up for the slightly chaotic day! See you in Dong Hoi!