Well,

After our overnight bus journey we arrived in Hoi An just before 6am on Thursday morning. Throughout the night I’d struggled sleeping a little – having to wake up every 45 minutes or so to remove a dead limb and get the circulation going again. Tim however was a lot worse and found that he couldn’t drop off. Bus journeys aren’t that fun when its pitch black out the window.

The first place we looked at for accommodation was like a palace [even had a mini bar]! Except it was miles out so we thought better of it. We got a moto into town and tried a couple of other places. The one we settled on we then later left because some German people talked of an electrical fire that had happened earlier that morning. Finally we settled on a decent place for $10 a night just outside of the action but easy enough to walk into the tiny old town of Hoi An.

So on Thursday we grabbed some breakfast and then had a well deserved nap to get us through the day. Pretty much as soon as we were up and about we were approached by a woman who took us to her cloth stall and got us looking at Next catalogues for a suit that we liked. We had planned to buy suits but thought that we’d shop around a little more before we settled on anything. That plan fell to pot and we ended up making a decision there and then. I ditched all the advice my mum had given me and went for a dark brown pinstripe suit and tim went for charcoal grey with subtle pinstripes and a winter coast to wear over the top [very mafia don like]. The rest of the day we did knack all apart from contemplate how much money we’d spent in so little time. (for me suit jacket 2 x trousers shirt tie for $125 and for tim the same and a coat for $180)

Today we looked around the old town of Hoi An and it really is a gorgeous little place. It is nice and relaxed and slow – nothing like the hustle and bustle of HCMC or the tourist haven of Nha Trang. We grabbed ourselves an old town ticket which we used to wander around and visit many of the World Heritage sights that are dotted about. We went for our second fitting, tim’s suit was a little small, mine was okay but needed to be a little looser.

Tomorrow will be the finale on the suit front, and we may visit the beach. Then its the all day and over night bus to Hue and onto Hanoi. Once in Hanoi we plan to go to Halong bay for a two day boat trip and then a day in Hanoi itself before some how getting to Laos.

Ta Ra

Andy