Saigon to Hoi An - The Long Way Round

As many of you may know already, James and I have now completed our motorcycle adventure.  Due to shortness of time and for the physical state of our behinds, we have opted to cease in the beautiful town of Hoi An.  It has been a great journey and we did not see a single Westerner until our last day.  We know a total of three Vietnamese words: 'Hello', 'Thankyou' and 'Beef'.  As you can imagine, this made the whole endeavour a whole lot more exciting.

I am saddened to report that we have now parted from our bikes Fergus and Finnegan, selling them for 40% of their original price.  We shall miss them dearly, if they had such intelligence, we would try and stay in contact, but we have agreed that any efforts would be futile (again, too much of a language barrier).

Hoi An is a beautiful place on the central coast of Vietnam.  It is an old port town, full of French architecture with strong influences from China and Japan.  By night, the town is illuminated by Chinese lanterns, both through the streets and floating on the river that bisects the settlement.  We have been very happy spending that last few days here and the surroundings do not cease to enchant us.  Today we have visited the 'Ancient Town' and discovered the herritage of such a place.  We had a traditional Vietnamese tea and observed the flood measure in a museum that informed us that the town has regularly become immersed in water over a metre deep in recent years.  Finger crossed our feet will stay dry!

James again:
Hey guys, I thought I would write another passage seeing as though we have ended our epic biking session. It will be nice to no longer be the 'Whities' (this isn't what they call us but we think they have a similar nickname to this in Vietnamese), and also to know what we are ordering when we visit resauraunts. We have already found our new local and go there for cheap breakfast and lunch everyday, but we venture to the higher end of the market for dinner. Sometimes we pay up to as much as 2 pounds for dinner. Personally to me that is extortionate, but they have to earn their bread and butter somehow.

Hoi An has already been placed high in my list of top places we have visited. The character has clearly been retained from the many years it has stood, and from the many cultures that have passed through the town, but it still bustles and hasn't lost its energy. It will a sad time when we have to leave in a couple of days, but bring on Hanoi!