Hoi An has been our favourite town in Vietnam to date. A week without moving has been lovely and it has been nice to get some cultural experiences in the old town and to enjoy some real warmth from the locals who really appreciate us using (slaughtering!) a little of their own language with them. There are bus loads of Chinese and Europeans around, but the Vietnamese love to bring out their kids and show off their own families to us, children are the ultimate icebreaker. The kitchen, cleaning and laundry staff at the hotel all love our kids too and have treated them so wonderfully. They hug, kiss and pick then up as often as they can, they slipped them free food when management weren't around and washed Will's teddy because it was looking like Saddam Hussein when they finally found him hidden in a cave.
Living as a family 24/7 in one room has it's challenges, but apart from the kids wanting to stay up whilst we have an evening drink or movie on the laptop (which means that we have absolutely no alone time any more!), we are all getting along amazingly well. Bernie is particularly enjoying not cooking and cleaning all day and I'm shutting off from school quite nicely.
We have checked out of our hotel room and will be skulking around the pool all day until our sleeper bus begins its 13 hour journey to the bustling beach and awesome diving destination; Nha Trang. We will miss this fantastic place though, Hoi An is a lovely town... for once my sister was spot on (cheers for the recommendation Em!), the locals still talk about a rugby girl that could down a yard in 27 seconds and I think you have your own temple; the drinking Buddha...
Glad you enjoyed it! Em xx
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