Hoi An- an anagram of Hanoi?

Well, we landed in Danang on the 11+ overnight train of the trip (and the first one to share with foreigners since our buddies Scott & Gill) and as if on cue the rains began. Then I read in the (8 year old) LP that the rains begin in Nov/Dec and it'll all a bit chilly, so we're glad we still have all our trans-Siberian gear!!

We've really fallen in love with Hoi an despite the plethora of tourists and drizzling-torrential rain. You can see the carnage that the flooding last month has left behind. We went into one of the Chinese style ancient houses on the water's edge (nostalgic for China-who'd have thought!) and they had the flood marks for 2004, 2008 and 2009 marked on the wall and 2009 is by far the highest and way above Kieran's head. This basically means the whole first floor must have been completely under water. Scary stuff.

Hoi An is also a place where you can go mad shopping and get tailored clothes so we thought we'd give this a go. With over 200 tailors in the small town it's a bit daunting finding one you like the look of so we just went with the hotel's suggestion and got a couple of work things (shirts, skirts) made up. I don't think I have the patience or knowledge for this sort of thing though. If you knew exactly what you wanted, including material, buttons, types of sewing etc you could have a field day here. We just went in and looked through their Next catelogues (I kid you not!!) and pointed to a couple of things. Then you start thinking...oh I could have that old coat i loved re-done, or a copy of my favourite blouse etc. Dangerous if we'd been here any longer- we'd have a whole wardrobe on its way seamail to Oz by now.

Highlight though (apart from the food, is'n't it always?!) was a trip out to My Son; ancient Lara-Croft style ruins about 40km away. (a Unesco World Heritage site, bien sur). They're no where near the scale of Ankor Wat in Cambodia or some of the Aztec/Inca ruins in Central America but they are mysterious and mossy and interesting nonetheless. If only for the larger craters left over from US bombing in the war...

Waiting for the 4 hour bus to Hue now!