Chad and Sharon Moore

From Nha Trang it was our first overnight bus journey in Vietnam to our next destination, Hoi An, as we continued our journey North. So, after 10 hours with the ever honking horns we arrived, suprisingly we managed to get a few hours sleep so we must be learning to sleep through anything.

Hoi An proved to be well worth it! Our $20 a night accomodation at Greenfields Hotel was great, luckily I emailed them the evening before as it was fully booked when we arrived. It has a swimming pool, cable tv (which meant I got to watch Manly beat Parra and the Brisbane!) fridge, a/c, free buffet breakfast (waaaaay too much food) and best of all free happy hour alcoholic fruit cocktails every evening around the pool!!! happy days! ;-)

Hoi An is billed as a ’shoppers paradise’ as it is one of the cheapest places on the planet to buy tailor made clothes!  Having known all this before we arrived, I must admit Sharon was looking forward to our time in Hoi An more than me but we actually both really enjoyed our time shopping in Hoi An! I discovered that buying clothes is actually fun if they are being tailor made, I got used to ladies fussing over me. The tailors of Hoi An are extremely talented, you can choose any design of clothes or shoes, select your material, and within 2/3 days you have a perfect fitting, carbon copy for significantly less than you would pay at home! 

We ended up getting a little carried away and probably bought a bit too much but it is pretty hard not too. Speaking to other travellers we seem to have held back pretty well as many people have ended up with complete new wardrobes (they can send stuff back home for you).

The city itself is relatively quiet by Vietnamese standards (i.e. only 2,000 motorbikes per sqaure inch), with gorgeous old buildings and cobbled streets. The town has a unique feel, with every other building either a clothes / shoe shop, the workers producing the material or the cutters and tailors making the alterations. Suits and jackets replace the usual pigs and chickens as the main cargo on the back of the motorbikes that fly around the tight streets all day and night!

Without doubt, Hoi An has been our favourite place in Vietnam so far. The town centre has some great old buildings, a lovely river setting and there is a great feel to the place, oh, and the clothes aren’t bad either!