Culture, beachlife and great food

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We arrive in Hoi An at lunchtime after a long and rubbish journey completely shattered, but we soon perk up as we take in our new surroundings. Hoi An has the feel of a small holiday town; lots of hotels, bars and restaurants fill the gaps between the countless tailors. The town is famous for the quality of their dressmakers and you can have a bespoke suit made for you within 24 hours.

Heading south you get to the huge outdoor market, past stalls of silk merchants and fake Ralph Lauren and Lacoste. Into the food section, where you can buy freshly ground coffee (which we do, I can't get over how good Vietnamese coffe is!) and fruit and veg, stopping to buy a dragon fruit for breakfast. The market stretches right down to the river and port, and is part of the Old Town, a Unesco World Heritage site. It's the last place in Vietnam that has 17th century buildings intact and you can really get a feel for how life was hundreds of years ago, when this was an important port on the India to China trade route; Chinese and Japanese influence are everywhere in the architecture.

Hoi An is also renowned for excellent food with many regional specialities and we're not dissapointed. Once again, the best meals we have are bought on the street. Crouched down on foot high stools at low tables, we seek out places always full of locals, and order two of the house specialty (each stall tends to sell just one expertly made dish). We're treated to the best noodle soup yet, the regional cao lau which is a richer broth than pho, with thick udon style noodles, loads of herbs, crunchy croutons, topped with roast pork and spicy prawns. For about 80p. Or crispy fried wonton and steamed white rose, a kind of prawn dumpling. All over Vietnam the markets and street traders are consistently serving us better food than any restaurants we 'treat' ourselves at...there's a lesson there!

We buy the pass that allows you access to all the ancient building and temples in the old town and also to an arts cooperative where we watch some traditional dance and music performances. Hoi An is also close to a really decent beach, so we hire bikes frm the hostel and spend some time there between our cultural interludes. We walk the few kilometers one day, stopping at a dressmakers on the way, and less than 4 hours later on the walk home, my custom made kaftan minidress is ready for me to collect. Couture for a not very Posh $4!

The weather now we're in the middle of the long dragon shaped country is much better, making Hoi An an even nicer place to be. The evenings are really warm and wandering round the atmospheric old town after dark is beautiful...all the ancient streets and bridges lit with multi coloured lanterns. We spend 4 days mixing up culture, beachlife and great food. To make our stay even happier, it's where we are on February 5th, when my neice Scarlett Coco Sissons is born...I wish I couple pop home for a couple of days to see my family.

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