Due to our last minute booking we only had 'hard sleeper' berths available to us... that's kind of like 3rd class (mmmm honeymoon special!). And they weren't joking about the hard part. 3 story bunk beds and a small child already in my bunk welcomed us... Alex was up top with just enough room to turn over in the night, and I was in the middle bunk. After turfing said small child out of my bunk, the 3 adult, 3 child family we were sharing the compartment with gradually congregated into the bottom two bunks as more people joined us in our compartment. This was going to be a fun journey!!!
Ha! Actually, as we boarded at 11pm we mainly all went straight to sleep, even the kids! Trusty ear plugs assisted greatly when they woke up super early mind, and despite the incredibly hard beds the journey passed pretty swiftly.
A short taxi ride later and we were in Hoi An :) In a rather fancy hotel too... not bad for a tenner!
Hoi An has managed to preserve it's Japanese Merchant houses, Chinese temples and tea warehouses... it's full of more beautiful naturally shabby chic establishments with colourful glowing lanterns everywhere, a very relaxed ambiance and friendly people. It's famous for it's silks and has, not kidding, over 500 tailors here who can whip you up a 3 piece suit in 48 hours... (try not to think about the people up all night making them though...)
More fabulous food just keeps coming at us, it's hard to say no when it's so cheap, and so tasty! We loved this restaurant Bale Well, where you make up your own spring rolls and dip them into spicy satay sauce - a local speciality, they seemed to love us too!






















Hmmm! All that lovely food - ..... salads, sport and keep fit when you return home!
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