The perfect mixture of blob, sighteeing, shopping, eating, drinking....

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It's hard to believe the glorious sunshine, ease of doing stuff, a pristine pool, more shops than you could shake a stick at, liquor at prices not seen by me since Manila in the mid-70's and outstanding, remarkable food.

Our days have settled into a delightful mixture of doing interesting things, travelling from one place to another, walking and shopping, sussing out the locals, attacking the ATMs ( oh man, max withdrawall is $2m dong) around $120 NZ - painful), we have also developed an astounding talent for finding excellent restaurants and cheap grog.

We flew from Sai Gon to Da Nang yesterday, and then drove via China Beach, an amazing marble carving centre and into Hoi An. This is a stunningly pretty town, with far less people and traffic. We are staying at yet another luxury resort - all mod cons, especially the pool and lovely people that bring drinks and sammies, when you ask for them.

Some of the team went to the local market at 6am, and said it was really interesting, with mainly produce for sale. It is the local food market, not a tourist trap. Pip bought a potato peeler!!

After breakfast we went on a walking tour of our own design, looking at the historic Japanese bridge and lovely ancient homes, as well as looking in the shops. These are largely small areas with masses of stock ranging from clothes manufacturers, junk toys, scarves, t-shirts, lovely jewellery (nice pearls in particular) and local wares, such as lanterns, carvings and so on.

We have to be careful to avoid catching the eyes of the shop keepers, as soon as they get your attention, it is all on - Madam this, Madam that, sit down here, buy this and often more aggressively than feels comfortable. Still we managed to avoid a lot of purchases, and pulled off a few that we are happy with. It is a long way to go yet, so don't want a lot of luggage at this point.

I have, though, been measured for two evening outfits, desperately needed - pure silk and if they work out ok, they will be extremely reasonably priced. Fingers crossed.

After all that exercise we just had to jump into the pool and enjoy a poolside lunch. Bliss. Bliss. Bliss.

Off this afternoon for a fitting of our new wardrobes.

While in Sai Gon we happened upon a lovely restaurant which turned out to be simply stunning - like WOW!! stuff. They have a branch up here and we are planning to go again tonight - armed with our discount vouchures and hopefully empty tummies.

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Photos

Pearls for Pip
Such fun trying all the treasures, even if we don't buy

Carvings from Da Nang
These are all done by hand - it can take weeks to simply wet and dry sand statues simply to make them shiny

Gentleman by shop
Pip with sun-reflecting umbrella