Hoi An

After the overnight train journey to Hoi An, we arrived at 11am. We had a bit of an encounter with dodgy taxi drivers pretending to be our booked Grab, and then our actual booked Grab driver arrived, spoofing his GPS location to get our ride - we had been warned about scams in Vietnam but we didn't realise that they'd be to this level! We arrived safely at our hotel after not too long, left our bags as we couldn't check in and searched for some liquid sleep: Vietnamese coffee. Next on the search for food, we stopped at the 'banh mi queen' called Madam Khanh, which specialised in 6 types of banh mi, we opted for the BBQ pork version which may have been the best one yet.

We wandered down to the riverfront, browsed the stalls, which we knew we would have to come back to for some tat and souvenirs, then went back to the hotel to check in. At £13 per night, the room was decent, and the staff at front-desk were lovely! First impressions of Hoi An was that it is a bit touristy but has kept its historic charm.

Dan had booked an appointment at a tailors to have a jacket made, so this was the next stop. We browsed the different fabrics and designs they had on offer but unfortunately the fabric that Dan selected would not have been delivered in time for us to collect and it was rather expensive, so we left it. Pretty tired, we had a relax at the hotel and ate dinner at a local restaurant and got an early night.

The following day, we were meeting up with Jodie and Luke (Dan's cousin) as they are on holiday in Vietnam. It was fab to see them and very nice to have other people to chat to other than each other and a book.

We started the day lazily with breakfast in a little cafe which set us back £4 for two coffees and two pastries. Vietnam definitely seems even cheaper than Thailand!

We then visited the same tailors as yesterday to enquire about shirts for Dan but still not convinced, we left it. We met Luke and Jodie 'on the An Hoi bridge at 1pm' (very James Bond) and caught up over a beer, followed by lunch, and then they introduced us to egg coffee!

As they are going North to South and we are going South to North, it was great to hear about what was in store for us next in Vietnam! We then spent the day, walking around market stalls until we all got too hot and found the nearest air-conditioned cafes/restaurants to seek refuge in. Luke demonstrated his perfected haggling technique, mainly involving walking away until the vendor halved the price; knock off Apple AirPods for £7 was particularly impressive!

We collected the tailored clothes that they had ordered and a jealous Dan ordered a blazer to be made whilst in that shop (fitted the following day).

We then strolled down the riverfront which was beautifully lit up by boats carrying lanterns, though a little busy as it was a public holiday. We ate at an indoor market for dinner, meaning we could all have what we wanted. We tried white rose which was a steamed vegetable dumpling, although were too busy devouring the food to take a picture. Jodie and Lauryn had some rather strong mangoritas which were just about drinkable. We then walked back to where the bus was picking Luke and Jodie up and said goodbye (but really we wanted to keep them to carry on our trip with us)!

We realised how much we had to plan for the next stages of our travels so the following day was spent mainly organising ourselves. We booked trains, hotels and flights between cities in Vietnam and out of the country too. We needed some more cash from an ATM - cash is king in Vietnam.

We also changed hotels to be closer to the river and sights for the following day. On the way, we ate at a lovely garden cafe; Dan had green eggs and ham (Dr Suess?) and Lauryn had a smoked salmon and avocado bagel. We also tried earl grey with pineapple juice, an egg coffee (like advocaat mixed with coffee, very delicious) and a berry passion smoothie.

Around 5pm, we shared a bahn mi at a cafe that Anthony Bourdain said was the best he'd had. It was very nice but not dissimilar to the others.

Dan needed to get to a fitting for his new blazer so we popped in, said what he wanted changing and we nearly managed to leave the shop until Lauryn decided on getting a suit made. Having not haggled in a while, she enjoyed bargaining and managed to get a good deal of £80 for blazer and trousers with a 24 hour turnaround, and a promise to not mention the price she paid on a review. We celebrated our suits with a beer by the river and some noodles for dinner.

Our hotel had bikes to borrow, so we made use of them and cycled to the beach! The ride there was slightly terrifying in town, but once out of the traffic, we had stunning scenery! It was mostly rice paddies on the way, one guy in the field was sunbathing on the back of a cow and gave us a friendly wave! The beach was good - you could see it stretch all the way up to Da Nang.

On the way back we saw a lot of rice being harvested, they dry out the grains on sheets in the road - they do wash it after apparently. We took the bikes through the town and it was really nice to just pootle about and very handy to take our washing to the laundrette and collect Lauryn's suit.

We found a local restaurant for dinner which was just a nice lady and her son cooking - she was very helpful in giving us instructions on how to eat everything, mainly wrapping stuff up in rice paper. The bamboo skewers were split in half and pinched the meat so it just fell out when you opened them. So much easier than a skewer at home. We wrapped the grilled pork in two sheets of rice paper and dipped in a peanut sauce - delicious!!!

On our final day in Hoi An we did a typical tourist activity visiting the coconut forest in a basket boat. On the way down the river to the forest (thankfully on a proper boat) we saw huge nets that are supported on posts they winch up to catch a load of fish in one go! A funny guy took us around on the basket boat, which didn't really seem like it should be floating. It was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon and Dan even caught a crab! On the way back we released some lanterns on the river, although it wasn't quite dark enough to get the full effect (and felt a little polluting).

We went back to the local restaurant for dinner - because the lady had asked us to come back and the food was ace so why not!

Dan has decided that his favourite Vietnamese food is Banh Xeo, which is a crispy pancake, often with shrimp and veg inside, and then eaten inside some rice paper with fresh herbs/lettuce.

We really enjoyed Hoi An and stayed a bit longer than we thought we would! It's on lots of people's itineraries for Vietnam with good reason!