The bus ride to Hoi An wasn't too strenuous and was only a speedy 6 hours away! Arriving at around 2 pm we were confident in finding a lovely cheap room before evening fell and we swiftly turned down the first offer of $15 which was offered at the hotel where we were dropped off. Two hours later we were most definitely regretting this as it turned out that there were two festivals running concurrently, an international choir festival and the monthly lantern festival and consequently the town was bursting at the seams with not a room to be found. When we returned to the original hotel in desperation with images of us wandering the streets all night we found out that they were now full but luckily the hotel next door had one room left and we quickly nabbed this even though it was $20. Although we had walked a fair part of the town whilst searching for a room weighed down by our backpacks and gnawing panic we hadn't really appreciated it but when we went out for a second time we quickly fell in love with the little winding streets and brightly painted buildings housing numerous café's, tailors and craft shops. The evening was spent wandering the old town and eating on the riverfront and Tom had his feet measured for some handmade shoes which was immensely exciting as he picked the fabric and had his feet drawn round in the same way you would as a child.

For our first full day in Hoi An we bought a combined ticket to the major historical attractions and spent the morning looking round little museums and temples and learning a bit about the history of this ancient port. After lunch we decided upon a boat trip with 'Captain Dan' a lovely old man with his own little boat who took us on a trip down the river for an hour. We saw some old style fishermen close up and Dan showed me his coin collection to which I donated a pound as he was looking for one to complete his stash, in return he gave me some Russian and Hong Kong coins of which he had a few. Following the trip up the river we hired 2 bikes and cycled about 5km out of the town to the beach which was a beautiful stretch of sand dotted with thatched huts however the windy weather and questionable clouds had driven away any sunbathers so it was fairly deserted and being the good Brits that we are of course we went for a paddle and got our shorts wet! After cycling back to town and dropping off our bikes Tom picked up his snazzy new red shoes which he was mightily pleased with and paid the bargain price of $20 for the privilege. The evening was the culmination of the lantern festival and for this event all the restaurants along the river in the old town had turned off their lights and were relying on candles and lanterns and people were letting floating candles off into the river which made for an incredible sight. To top it all off some groups from the choir festival were performing along the river which made for an amazing accompaniment for our dinner. It was a magical evening that seemed otherworldly in its simple beauty and I'm so glad that we happened to be passing through on that particular day.

Our final day in Hoi An we had booked the overnight bus for 6pm but had the whole day to spend as we wished prior to that. We decided to go on a tour to the ruins of the Cham temples at My Son which was advertised all over town. It was a fairly long trip out there and although the ruined temples were impressive due to their age (they were built in the 4th century) we found it hard at times to muster up quite the right level of enthusiasm for some piles of bricks…call us Philistines if you want! We were intrigued by the evidence of American bomb destruction at parts of the site though as it seemed ridiculous that people would want to bomb essentially useless monuments, we never did find out the reason for it. We spent the afternoon back in Hoi An soaking up the riverfront atmosphere for the last time and bumped into a couple that we had seen briefly at each town since Luang Prabang and had a catch up on our various activities! The afternoon whizzed past and soon it was time for us to set off for Nha Trang, Vietnam's premier beach resort for the first proper beach experience yet on our trip!