After a fairly good night's sleep under the fan, we showered and headed out. This was of course after sun cream and deet application - now a necessary evil of each and every day!

It was already a really hot day so we stopped for some brunch deciding which of the many sights in the UNESCO heritage sight of Hoi An we would visit. We bought a ticket which allows you only to visit 5 but there are 18 in total! We sat in the shade of a small café type place on the main street and had an omelette each and the best English tea I have had since being away! We sat here for a while under the guise of deciding what to do but we were simply trying to avoid the heat of the sun.

We finally bit the bullet and walked over to the Japanese covered bridge. This has a small temple inside, with a pair of stone dogs guarding one side and a pair of stone monkeys guarding the other - there are many speculations for this but the main one is because the building of the bridge started in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog.

We then wandered down the street on the other side of the stream where I bought a long sleeved top to replace a shirt that had been ruined in the rain in Hue (and because I like shopping!). We turned around and visited a temple with an overzealous guide. The temple was small and beautifully decorated and was very Chinese influenced. The afore mentioned overzealous guide followed us around telling us bits and bobs in broken English but one word he did know was photo, so he spent a lot of time taking photos of Neil and I.

After all this exertion we were very hot so stopped for a drink in the shade to cool down. We wandered along the picturesque old streets and I tried on some traditional trousers, taking ages to decide which ones I wanted and eventually got some purple baggy ones for approx 3 pounds - Bargain! (Like I said before I like shopping - Neil thought travelling might knock it out of me! I don't think so! ).

We then visited Quan Long Temple which is a Buddhist temple. Everything is decorated in red and has incense burning - it makes a very peaceful atmosphere. So much of Hoi An is ancient (although some of it has simply been made to look that way) and this makes it lovely to simply walk around take it all in. We walked to the market area looking at all the food - some things we recognised and others we didn't - as well as clothes, jewellery, scarves and knick knacks on offer.

By now we were very hot indeed, so we went back to the hostel and took a dip in the pool but as sods law dictates as soon as we did so the sun decided to go in. However we still enjoyed the cool down - made even more enjoyable as we had the pool to ourselves.

We freshened up and used the internet before heading to a Lonely Planet recommended place which was unfortunately no longer in business. We ended up in a nearby restaurant and had some lovely local food where we also raised a glass to Dawn - Happy Birthday Dawn and to my Grandma who died 10 years ago today - RIP Grandma! Yet more wandering and shopping was done after dinner and I purchased a pretty beach dress - I have been totally spoilt today. We then went and really treated ourselves at a rather posh outlet for a pudding each. It was delicious and worth every dong!

We decided to get back to the hostel for relaxed time as we have another night bus tomorrow to get to Nha Trang - beach time at last - yay!

We woke up hot and sweaty due to a power cut early morning and the fan going off. We carried on regardless, showered, packed, dressed and checked out. It was a very hot day even at 10am so we only made it a few doors down for a delicious breakfast. After this we mooched some more around Hoi An and onto Cam Nam Island where there wasn't much to see but we stopped for a cold drink.

We headed back over the bridge and spent a while looking at a lady's stall. She was selling Ray Bans for 2 dollars - a passerby was gutted as she had just bought some for 7 dollars! There was nothing we wanted but as the lady had been so nice I bought a couple of post cards. At another shop I bought a scarf happily haggling it down to half the price first asked by the vendor.

We went back to the hotel to write the post cards and pick up a parcel to send home and then went off in search of the post office. It was such a hot day - I had sweat in many places! Once at the post office I had to fill out several different forms while the lady behind the counter wrapped my stuff up good and proper (mum won't be able to get into it!) before it was all sealed and ready to go. This was a much easier post office experience than in China as the signs were in English and the assistants spoke English too. After paying the postage we went looking for some lunch.

We went to the cheaper end of town away from the river where we sampled some white rose - a Hoi An speciality of shrimp in rice paper shaped into a rose served with chilli - it was delicious! We sat a while in the restaurant talking about life and watching the Vietnamese world go by.

After this we went back to the hostel to wait for the night bus. We were getting increasingly anxious about this as we didn't have a ticket even though we had paid for seats. Never the less the bus turned up and we hoped on getting two seats/beds together so we were happy. The bus was in a rather poor state of disrepair but it did have a toilet even though it was disgusting! I had an air con fan blowing directly onto me so I was freezing cold. I tried to wrap up in my new trousers and scarf to keep myself warm and settled down for the night ready to wake up on Nha Trang!

I really enjoyed being in Hoi An - it had such a nice holiday feel to it :o)

Love and miss you all lots! xxxxxxxxxx