Hoi An - Vietnam

We took a bus for a nice 4 hours from Hue to Hoi An, which is the tailor capital of the world. It was an international trading port as far back as the 17th century. It had well preserved local architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has a really nice feel to the town and we stayed for 4 nights in a room on the edge of town overlooking a field. Out time spent here was within the tailors and getting very excited about the clothes that we had made. Ian has had two suits made with extra trousers, a summer suit for Liza's Wedding, a shirt and (get this) tailor made shoes. His Wedding outfit come to US$100. Oh and a big winter coat. He reminded me that he also got some linen trousers made as well. I've had a dress for the Wedding made (Thai silk - 37 pounds), some linen trousers, a skirt, two other dresses, and three tops (seven pieces for an average of 6 pounds each). And some shoes for the Wedding for a tena, (tailor made!). You could just go mad. Cyndi apparently got her summer wardrobe done here. The clothes are just beautiful and I just keep walking past shops and having to look away. We did also rent push bikes and rode to the beach which was about 15 mins away. The waves were pretty fearce and our bodies took abit of a pounding, but it was nice to laze on the sand. We also took a boat ride from town to have a look up river. We did miss some sights such as a nearby Mountain, and My Son (which is compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but on a smaller scale - so we didn't mind missing it, although at the beginning we had all intentions of going and seeing it). Here was were we started to bump into people we had already met, and we continued to all the way to Saigon. We had met Bren and Gumi in Sapa, and it was Gumi that hired motorbikes with Ian and myself, and got mine going when it had been tampered with. They are from NZ. When they were on tour on Halong Bay, out of Hanoi, they had met and continued to travel down south with an English couple called Jen and Jez (honeymooners traveling for 3 months), and an Australian couple called Kim and Clay. It wasn't until the next town that we spent loads of time with them all, and really enjoyed their company.