Hoi An

I have never been anywhere on earth where there is so much shopping fun to have. After my bike marathon through the highlands I was ready to sit back and chill in Hoi An, but oh no, far too busy for that.

Whilst walking around town on the first day I noticed that every shop was either a souvenir shop, a gallery or a cloth shop - interesting. I met the 2 English girls that I had seen in Nha Trang and they happily informed me that yes, I had died and gone to shopping heaven and must immediately get my purse out and spend like a crazy woman. And who was I to argue?

So started 3 days of choosing, measuring, trying and buying. Being a sensible girl I said to myself that there was really no point having a lot of nice suits or anything made as I wouldn't need them on my travels and I wouldn't be home for another 11 months. So, in the end, all I had made was 2 suits (jacket, trousers and skirt), 1 cord jacket, 2 pairs of cord trousers, 1 pair of nice black trousers, 2 pairs of travel trousers, 1 smart black coat and various odds and sods. Very restrained of me I think! And it was all sooooooo cheap. I've posted it all back home so praying that it gets there and that I don't put on an ounce of weight during the rest of my travels.

The evenings were spent eating in one of the numerous lovely restaurants and watching the Full Moon Celebrations down by the river. Lots of singing and dancing and merriment. One thing that I found very strange though was that, when the show finished, not ONE person clapped. They all just turned away and went home...

As a World Heritage sight Hoi An is very pretty with some lovely architecture but as I was too busy shopping I didn't take any photos so bought some postcards instead!