Bye Bye Mundane Life!!: Hoi An

We woke in Hoi An at 6.30am after a very bizarre night bus - we had been picked up early by a bus from a different company to the one we booked with, there were only 4 of us on board (we picked up a couple of extra locals along the way - but the bus remained empty), we drove at break-neck speed without stopping for the the first 5hrs (some good bladder training) and ended up getting to Hoi An about 2hrs early....the bus pulling up in a deserted side street so we could get some sleep before the sun rose (well that was the plan but an american girl got freaked out and demanded the bus driver drive us into the city centre- where the moto drivers we already out testing their horns!). Knackered, but with more sleep than expected having been able to lie across 4 seats, we went off to find cheap accomodation - the moto drivers laughing at us when we said we wanted to pay no more than $5.....and we slowly found out why, after over 1hr of searching, soaked to the bone in sweat we resigned ourselves to having to pay $8!! Not a good start for Hoi An! While searching for hotels you couldn't help but notice all the tailor shops - something that hadn't appealed much to us before now, but these were different and seemed to display a large selection of pretty womens tops, dresses, skirts, etc - all straight out of the Next directory (literally). Georgie gave into temptation, only wanting to buy one dress she emerged 1hr later with an order for 2 skirts, 1 top and 1 pair trousers (for only $32). We spent 3 days in Hoi An - during which time we returned several times to the tailors for further fittings and to purchase more items, eventually even Chris gave into the pressure and bought a pair of tailored trousers.....oh dear, how the hell are we going to carry all this stuff????
After our experience in Thailand at the cookery course we were keen to learn a bit about Vietnamese style cooking - so we spent over 2hrs one day with our Vietnamese chef learning and eating 6 different dishes.....all very tasty.....giving us very full bellies and lots more ideas of things we can recreate for you folks back home (how lucky you are!).
The rest of our time in Hoi An was spent exploring the very picturesque small lanes of the old town, drinking Bia Hoi by the riverfront and relaxing at the nearby beach (a good 4km walk away allowing us to burn off some of those extra beer calories!). With all the lovely shops, the tailors, the charming old town and a good beach this is definetly a location I would recommend to anyone coming on hoilday to Vietnam - unfortunately for us it was all a little bit above our price range!