A few photos

Hoian was busy, and we did a couple of trips from there.  We went snorkelling at Cham Islands, after visiting a little fishing village.  I took a photo of a lovely old lady at the pagoda in the fishing village.  There was plenty of soft and hard coral, and brilliantly coloured sea anemones around these island - not a huge amount of fish, but I bumped into a very friendly nemo.  Water temp was around 32-34, a little bit cooler than our spa - the lunch on the island was really good, and what was really nice that there aren't that many tourists around!  Brilliant - we shared the beach with about 30 people at the maximum.

We visited the Old Town of Hoian and got some of our best bargains there.  The shopkeepers were quite laid back, not so much hard-sell, so we were happy to buy.
 
Our resort was really good, about halfway between the town of Hoian and the Cua Dai beach, with regular free shuttles to each of them.  However, we rarely seemed to get our act together for the shuttles, so used cabs frequently to get to where we wanted to go - at the ridiculous price of about $2 per trip!  Our porch led out to the gardens and overlooked the pool area, so many a happy hour was spent either drinking on our porch or having cocktails in the pool.  Very hard to take.

Lorraine & I had some pants made for us at Cua Dai beach - really cool and comfortable in this heat, and cost $15 per pair, made overnight.  Very happy with that.  Kirsti had a dress made, and she is also very happy with it.
 
The markets in Hoian had an interesting assortment of goods on display - including bottles of drinks with snakes and scorpions in them - supposed to be very good for men's virility - see photo!

Our last night at Hoian was spent in a restaurant on the river, which I had read about on Trip Advisor - it was called the Son Restaurant, and the food was delicious.  A bit more expensive (around $70 for six people) than eating at the little local plastic table outlets, but well worth it.

We were all a bit sad to leave Hoian but agreed that it is definitely a place we would love to come back to.... so will have to start planning our next trip.  Lorraine wants to come back and stay for a month?????

We're now in Ho Chi Minh City for huge change of pace - I have never in my life seen so much traffic, mostly motorbikes, and heard so much noise.  This leaves Bangkok for dead .... but more on that later.