Hoi An

Old Town (Hoi An)

Hoi An is a great little town - unlike anywhere i'v ever been before. The area to stay is the small and very petite old town - and it certainly is old. It used to be a major shipping port but is now a world heritage site. Because of it's status you have to pay just to enter the town. For your money though, you do get free entry to one of the many museums, one of the temples, and a host of other listed buildings as well as entry to a traditional music concert.

Hoi An is also famous for its tailor shops. They're everywhere and with no trouble at all you can pick up an entire tailored, hand-made suit in less than 5 hours. You choose everything, from the materials to its design and colour, or you can simply point something out in the 'Next' 2008 catalogue (which they also have) and they will make it to fit you perfectly. Its cheap too - with an entire cashmere suit, shirt and tie costing about 30 pounds, with a bit of bargaining. Due to travelling for a year, plus being completely stupid - I didn't get anything made and I am already regretting it!!!

Vietnam has great food. It comes second only to Thailand so far and Hoi An has it's own specialities, including my favourite - Cao lau which is essentially salad in a soup, topped with croutons and pork. The water for the soup however, has to come from the Ba Le Well, which is obviously only found in Hoi An.

I only spent only a few days here but quickly bumped into Simone (who was on my Halong Bay boat) and her friend Heather who I had never met before. Eventually though, I said my goodbye's and departed, leaving the girls to shop in this consumers paradise town. I would end up seeing Simone and Heather a number of times on my trip and often they were not still together. It's one of the amazing things about traveling - meeting new people and then bumping into them 4 or 5 times down the road somewhere, often in the most unexpected places and usually to your complete amazement. I continued my journey - along Vietnam's endless coastline.