Hello Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An yesterday and were welcomed by a tropical deluge, which was to be repeated many times throughout the rest of the day. Not to be defeated, we walked into the beautiful old town a couple of times to visit the markets, the river and the myriad of shops selling all sorts of touristy rubbish you buy thinking it would be great but never actually use once you get home. To make things worse, nothing comes with a price tag, so you are quoted an exorbitant price and are expected to haggle. To be honest, the whole tourist shopping experience leaves us cold, no different to being  back home. Moreover, it is anything but the real deal when it comes to experiencing what makes the Vietnamese people unique.

The river is a real focal point in Hoi An, with lots of tourists taking short boat trips.

Hoi An is spectacular by night, with its famous street lanterns.

Hoi An really comes alive at night, when colorful lanterns light the streets and illuminate the beautiful soft yellow colored walls of most of the buildings. It's also when the river comes alive with little boats which carry tourists to their chosen restaurant. The boats all carry lanterns which you can place on the water, creating the most amazing scene of floating candles.

The weather here is not great and not expected to improve greatly during our stay, so a visit to the beach doesn't  present itself as overly appealing. No problem, really, as it's lovely just walking through the streets. It is, after all, still the wet season, so we can hardly complain.

That's Alison in the foreground sniffing out her next bargain (she already bought 8 pairs of shoes, 9 dresses, three hats, 18 T-shirts........)

Hoi An is also a magnet for foodies, with literally hundreds of restaurants to choose from. It also has lots of street food but be careful, apparently 16,000 dong sounds pretty much like 60,000 dong)

Tomorrow, the four of us have enrolled in an advanced cooking class (Matt and I consider ourselves way too good to cook with the plebs), which includes a boat trip to the market to buy the ingredients and a couple of hours to cook up a four course authentic Vietnamese meal. I think we're all really looking forward to this.

How beautiful.