---

---

Well after a longer than planned stay in Hanoi it was time to take a sleeper bus to a town called Hoi An, this place is famous in Vietnam for being an ancient town full of gift shops and tailors, you can get a fully tailored suit with 2 shirts and 2 ties, all specified down to the smallest detail for about US$250. These suits were the business and if I was coming to the end of my trip i would have forked out for one. Instead I decided to get some trainers made.

The town itself was very picturesque with a lot of Chinese influence very noticeable. And the restaurants were fantastic, you could get a draft beer for 4,000 dong which is 13p (outstanding) and I had Duck a l'Orange for the first time, which I managed to pick up for a just over a quid. Its gonna very strange to actually have to cook for myself again.

Hoi An has a beach about 5km away so we hired push bikes one day to explore, that was okay but the following two days we decided to take the plunge and hire some mopeds, bearing in mind I had never road one of these things before it came to me very easily.

With 150cc of pure Kia power between we went in search of adventure in the form of a mountain pass about 35km west. Off we went and got lost after the first turning. We ended up giving up on the mountain pass and instead stumbled on this coastal road which snaked up the hills with views of the sea the entire time. We came to a check point and decided to go the other way which turned out to be a concrete single track path. Quite strange but we ended up at this eco-farm with lots of guys in military uniforms who where catching a dog with a big fishing net. I can't be sure but from the welps and crys of the dog I think they had just caught their dinner. We left pretty sharpish and scooted out of there.

We went to a beach party the next night which also had a pool, so it may well have been a pool party and we got the craziest motorbike taxi driver who was wanting to race with everyone. We keep seeing these two Irish lads who we first met in Chang Mia and it looks like we'll be seeing them a bit more as their route is pretty similar to ours. At least until September anyway.

The following night we were booked on the sleeper bus to a beach resort called Nah Trang. Its a 15 hour bus but you do get a bed, even though sleeping is pretty much impossible due to the drivers need to fire up the buses horn every 30 seconds.

Nah Trang is planned to be a chilled out inexpensive beach stop. But we'll see what happens.

---