Hoi An & Nha Trang

Have just spent a very pleasurable (if somewhat expensive) two days in Hoi An. Its the town where there are about 4 or 5 tailoring shops on every street - and thats no exaggeration. I joined the Scottish lads in ordering a suit yesterday morning. By 4 PM it was ready for fitting, and with a few tweaks and minor adjustments I picked it up today. A dark grey silk-lined cashmere suit for a fraction of the price to be paid back home. As you've gathered i'm pretty pleased with the purchase! The only snag now is carrying it around for 2 months in the backpack.

Hoi An is a charming town thats very popular with visiting westerners. There is a Mediterranean look to the place, and its very laid back with lots of cafes and resteraunts. Today the four of us went to the My Son ancient ruins in the jungle 50km from the town. It was great - ruins of a complex of Cham temples dating back from around 1000 AD. Unfortunately the Americans were responsible for inflicting alot of damage to the buildings during the war - as craters left behind from B-52 bombings were clear to see all around.

The middle part of the week was spent in the seaside town of Nha Trang. This place is the No.1 seaside destination for Vietnamese families and was very busy day and night. The coastal scenery there is pretty amazing - rugged forested mountains perched on the edge of the seashore for miles around. Unfortunately the place is at risk of being massively over-developed. There were numerous multi-storey concrete hotels going up all over town - which is a shame to see. We somehow ended up on a boat tour on thursday with some crazy Vietnamese guys - not much culture was absorbed for the few days spent there. We took the night train on Thursday night and tomorrow morning we take the coastal road to Hue which featured in the infamous Top Gear episode. This has been referred to continuously since being in Vietnam - though we have not come across any damage left behind by Clarkson and co.

Ta for now