Early morning flight to Danang followed by a brief trip to Hoi An, stopping at the Marble Mountain (one of a series of small marble hillocks surrounding Hoi An), China Beach and a local stone carving workshop (which was producing some quite spectacularly hideous creations).
Hoi An is lovely; old wooden houses and narrow cobbled streets, cars are banned in the old city, so at least you only have to look out for the mad midget motorbike maniacs. The city floods to a depth of about 3m every rainy season, but everybody just moves upstairs and boats replace bikes.
Most of the shops are tailors, cobblers, lantern makers, art galleries or restaurants. All in all a good place to part with some cash. Which is what we spent much of the afternoon doing. That and getting measured; in every shop doorway you see tourists sucking in their tummies, wishing they were several sizes smaller. The tailors will make absolutely anything you want, with no reference to any style concerns. Caroline has heavily bastardised 2009 Vogue so we'll have to see whether she looks like Victoria Beckham! (Olly hopes not.) Results tomorrow... We both have some feelings of trepidation.
Found a little woman cooking on the side of the street (possibly skewered pork) - whatever, it was very tasty and we haven't suffered any side effects yet. :-) Sitting on children's stools in the dust at the side of the road we were looked down on by numerous American tour parties. We know we've gone native because Olly was complimented on his haggling skills.
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