Hoi An.

Getting to Hoi An was an experience. We caught a night train which meant we had a little compartment with 6 beds in it and we are poor so had to have the top bunk which made it feel as though the train was as stable as an elephant balanced on a pencil. This was the least of my worries though. As I settled down on to the paper thin and aid riddled mattress all I could hear was the shrill voice of the vietmanese lady on the bunk below me. She happened to find herself incredibly funny and laughed at EVERYTHING she said, which was possibly the most annoying thing in the world. Somehow I managed to fall asleep, but then I woke up as we were going around a corner or something and there was a man snoring on the bunk below the screeechy woman, who luckily was asleep by now. I lay for about 5 minutes trying to sleep despite my really itchy bites which have all swelled up to the size of africa, and of course despite the snoring man. About half an hour passes and I'm pretty much ready to either go suffocate the man or kill myself but then I remembered my earplugs which are predictably buried right in the middle of my backpack so I fish them out and have some peace :) I woke up around 8am and we are expecting to reach Da Nang at 10am. What silly fools we are. We'd left at around midnight and the journey which was supposed to take 10 hours still isn't over by 1pm :( Urrrr, long long long! We arrive at 3pm and then share a taxi with a couple of guys from England-one from Milton Keynes! Small world. The first thing I notice is how cold Hoi An is, like I'd be comfortable in a pair of jeans here. Strange, but anyway we found a place to crash and....i'm staying in a hotel! Yay, it's 1* but still...a real life hotel. It has a pool and everything, granted you would have a hard time actually fitting more than one person in it but beggars can't be choosers. Hoi An is known for being the best value place in s.e asia so we're making the most of it.  After we dumped all our bags, we went for a walk around this little place and it's my favourite place I've been so far. So quaint and lovely, beautiful lanterns everywhere at night and a pretty river lit up by illuminated animals :) Tonight I'm going to take my camera and try and capture some of the magic BUT I won't be able to put them up because NONE of the computers have memory card slots and I'm a wally who forgot my camera lead. We're going to go take a cookery class tomorrow which sounds like a lot of fun. You wake up early and get taken to the markets to pick the ingredients, then you basically copy the chef then you eat it all after woohoo. When I get back I'll make everyone noodles! Ohhh, I just read this back and realise all I do is complain but really really I am having the best time and I don't want to leave Asia :( which I will be doing in exactly 6 weeks! Time is flying by...Love to you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx