Your probably wondering where are all the posts on Hoi An, well, we are far too chilled out to muster the energy or creativity to even think of getting the laptop out – sorry!

We cannot speak highly enough of this amazing place, it’s so beautiful, friendly and relaxed, it’s contagious. In addition to the photos detailed below, we have coupled a few more here on our picture tab to give you a taste of what we’ve had to endure over the last few days – it might take a few days to upload them all.  We had only planned on staying a couple of nights but have stayed four.

We rented a couple of bicycles for the few days and headed to the beach – unbelievably it’s not mentioned in the Lonely Planet – we swam in the hotel pool, eat and drank till the early hours and window shopped till we dropped – life cannot get any better than this.

We are off to Hanoi today on the dreaded sleeper bus for 16–18hrs, so there may be an ever longer delay in the posts for a time.

Just to give you a flavour of how chilled this place is we’ll start with a photo of the local bank, absolutely incredible!  Hoi An is the perfect holiday destination, without question.

Hoi An is a breath of fresh air and most certainly the highlight of our trip to Vietnam so far.   Oozing with charm and history, having largely escaped the destruction of successive wars which has ruined most of the towns and cities we’ve seen. Hoi An is exactly what we had expected of Vietnam with its cobbled streets and character buildings.

We arrived early yesterday after a 14hr ride on a sleeper bus from Nha Trang, a new experience but very exhausting. After checking in we went for a beer, I had a much needed haircut and had a beautiful meal in Cafe 96, a riverside restaurant recommended by the bible.  It might look like a prison from the pictures but the decrepit look of Cafe 64 is one that many western interior designers would spend a fortune trying to create.

While we were there a table of customers received a fish cooking lesson which lended a great atmosphere to us spectators.

We’ll have some more of this place for sure.

Update: before you ask, I’ve now shaved the beard or what was left of it following my visit to the barber.

Beach culture to the max, this is the place to chill out, party hard or dive into the turquoise depths (Lonely Planet).

Nha Trang is rather lacking on cultural stuff or anything really interesting – a bustling Vietnamese city humming with commerce and blessed with access to a beautiful beach – but for us it was a little boring, over-hyped by many backpackers and that of the lonely planet. 

True to form we spent a couple of days chilling out at the beach and one on a day trip around the islands, other than that, not a lot to report. The day trip was as the pictures show with the karoke and floating bar serving cheap plonk a little cheesy at times but somewhat funny.  That said, at $7 a head including food we would do it again at a heartbeat.

Nha Trang, in our opinion, is no more than a stop over when visiting the many more interesting places of Vietnam.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Steve and Jess who we’ve toured with for the last three weeks – with different itineraries it was inevitable at some point. A great couple and we’ve had some great laughs along the way. 

As expected, we had a fair skinfull on our last night, to the point where Steve and I were climbing the palm trees – enough said.

I know you will be keeping an eye on our blog, so all the best and we hope to meet up again when we finish.

Action or inertia, take your pick: this place is made for surfing (wind, board or kite) or blobbing on the beach (Lonely Planet).

We’ve been here three nights in a great hotel jut chilling, swimming and touring. The waves on the first day were absolutely amazing – some as high at 10ft – it got so rough at high tide it was dangerous so we had to get out. The day we had scheduled in for surfing there were no waves – just our luck. 

Today we move up the coast to Nha Trang  yet another beautiful beach but no surfing, just snorkeling and, if the price and visibility are right, diving. I’m gutted we couldn’t try our hand at surfing but I’m sure the opportunity will arise again at another location.