20TH - 24TH NOVEMBER

Hoi An
20th - 24th November

We arrived feeling fairly refreshed after our semi-epic train journey! It was like stepping back in time to our Russian train days (same kind of compartment) apart from the obvious shorter distances covered! We had pre-booked into a hotel so got picked up from the station, which was a relief as the sky was grey and full of rain and it was cold! It was the first time in ages that we had actually felt cold. Ah just like home, grey skies, rain and cold! It took about an hour to drive from Da Nang to Hoi An and we were transported in a wait for it, a Daewoo, hmmm brought back memories of my pre-wedding car troubles with my pesky thing!

The hotel was fine, about a 5 to 10

minute walk out of the main town, but it was the cheapest place we could find. Much as it would have been lovely to stay in the ancient part of town, prices were a little more than our budget allowed. The first thing we needed to do was to find a bank and get some ridiculous amount of money out. The money is bonkers over here, it’s on a par with the old Italian Lira (remembering the first time me and Cath were millionaires!). Then off we trotted to check out what Hoi An had in store, it was a big fat WOW! We had been told by various people that we had met along the way that Hoi An was the place to shop for clothes and boy they weren’t wrong! There were tailors everywhere, even I was chomping at the bit to do some clothes shopping, after wearing the same old clothes for 6 months I quite fancied a new wardrobe! But then how useful is tailored clothing to us! Meryl and Les sprang to mind and what a nightmare it would be coming here with them, they both would need at least a year here just to get round all