Vietnam: Hoi An

Hoi An was a really pretty town: the tall skinny houses were all faded pastel colours like yellow, orange, pink, green and blue with the paint peeling and cracked. There were silk lanterns and frangipanis hanging off the balconies, and it was really quiet; especially at night when we felt like we were in a ghost town.

Drew caught up with us here so the five of us spent our days scootering around town, checking on measurements at our 'Kimmy' tailor, eating and going to the beach. The three boys got some crazy shorts made (wait til you see Scott's!) with different coloured pockets and legs and buttons.. and Nadeane got some nice silk shorts and blazers. I refrained due to limited pack space and budget, but it was fun just watching them choose their designs and materials!

One night we started chatting to a group of Vietnamese people around our age on the beach and they invited us to sit on their mat, eat their chili squid and sip whatever they were drinking with them. Seeing as our working vocabulary of Vietnamese consists of 'xin chao' for hello and 'cam on' for thankyou, and all they could say was 'I kiss you, because I luuurve you' (I don't know where they learnt it but they all thought it was hilarious and giggled everytime they said it) it was an interesting night and so nice to be included with some locals.

From Hoi An we jumped on the sleeper bus 12 hours to Nha Trang. I read 'The Sorrow of War' on this journey and it was perfect, rumbling along the highway at night, stopping for pho, and thinking about the Vietnam war. The book is written from the view of a young North Vietnamese soldier, whose entire life was ruined by the war even though he was on the 'winning' side.