The Dream that is Hoi An

Hoi An is probably one of the most beautiful towns we’ve ever been to. We simply loved it here, and were it not for the fact that we are running out of time and have so much more we want to see, then we would happily have stayed here for a week. In the end we spent four nights in this picturesque little town which is an endless maze of cobbled streets and old buildings, charming little cafes, tasteful bars, wonderful food and a lovely atmosphere of hustle and bustle. At night lanterns are lit throughout the old town giving it a wonderful soft-orange glow and a marvellous dose of charm. Little old ladies sell candles to tourists who then float them down the river, which (if you're not a litter-nazi like us) is really rather pretty. 

We stayed in two delightful little homestays (in the first one we even got serenaded at breakfast by our rather crazy host who within 5 minutes of meeting us had told us in a very loud conspiring whisper that the North Vietnamese had kidnapped two of his dogs and eaten them…) and made full use of their free bikes which we pootled around on all day and all night. It was so nice to be back on a bike, and so liberating being able to travel wherever you like without having to haggle or part with our precious cash. We cycled to the beach, we got some clothes tailor-made (Hoi An is famous for this and it was an experience in itself), ate amazing street food, strolled around the shops wishing we could buy everything and drank copious amounts of iced-coffee in adorable little cafes.

Looking a bit Mr Darcy in his half-finished suit 

We also took a boat trip to the nearby islands and somehow found ourselves on a half-day organised tour with a boatload of Vietnamese. They were all dressed up to the nines with immaculate makeup, fancy hairstyles, big hats to hide from the Sun (why on earth you'd want to go to the beach when your hatred of the Sun is Vampire-esque in its severity) and some of the ladies even had a change of wardrobe for half-way through the trip. We rocked up in beach gear and I was having one of my distinctly spotty, sweat-moustache episodes and felt like the biggest tramp all day next to these pristine women without a bead of sweat between them or their carefully-tweezed upper lips. We spent the day trying to avoid Selfie-Central and escape the dreaded umbrella-wielding guide who the Vietnamese devotedly followed around like he was the Pied Piper, but did enjoy a lovely little snorkel, made a Vietnamese friend who has invited us to stay with her and a had lovely lunch for two on the beach (we were the only ones given our own table...clearly didn't want to mix with The Sweaty Ones).

Vietnamese ladies in what I swear must be standard-issue hats...

But anyway, in case you hadn’t guessed, we LOVED Hoi An-it is definitely one of our favourite places we’ve been so far, and we were sorry to leave.