Hoi An, Vietnam, SE Asia

A cute little town which is every girls dream - this place has everything including over 200 tailors for those shopaholics amongst us! Shops, tailors, good bars & restaurants, beach - everythng!

An enchanting old town with beautiful colonial French buildings, set along the Thu Bon River. With a strong Chinese influence there are many historic sights that you can explore, or equally you can spend your time wandering around the many narrow streets, browse through the market, and pick & choose designs and materials at the various tailors.

Mike and I managed to get roped into the whole clothes making thing and spent a couple of hours choosing our designs and getting measured up. You really need to control yourself as they have copious amounts of NEXT catalogues and so its easy to go mad and ask for everything to be made to your fitting. 1 suit, 4 trousers, 1 skirt, 1 top and 1 jacket later I managed to call it a day!

Our time in Hoi An was also made a little special by coming across this eccentric Vietnamese character called Minh. We were seeking shade one afternoon and Minh approached us and started chatting away about his love for Westerners. He soon insisted on being our guide to various temples around town which saw us sharing tea with a elderly local man. Minh then invited us to his house that evening to listen to music, drink with him, and look over his many photo albums of his family and day trips he has had with other travellers like us. The whole evening was a strange experience with Minh bopping away to some 80s tracks, drinking potent China wine and then playing pool with him at a local bar - he was very competitive and perhaps didnt take too kindly to Mike & I beating him 3 games in a row.

All I can say is that travelling brings on these random experiences, and if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, just relax and take it all in! You get a real insight into the way a local man lives.

On our final day we sought about posting home our new clothes, praying that they will make back to Blighty. Job done, so we hired bicycles and rode 3km to find Ciu Dad beach - stunning scenery enroute and the beach was great - a couple of hours sunbathing before yet another overnight bus to the sleepy beach town of Mui Ne.

Hoi An must be a definite on anyones list travelling through Vietnam, it definitely is my number one destination in this diverse country.