Our first rainy day in Hoi An, which meant for a relaxed affair at the hotel until the weather improved.

We spent the morning, post breakfast, enjoying the views from the veranda out across the vegetable garden and the feeding water buffaloes.

With the rain showing no signs of subsiding, we picked up our books and headed for the covered pool side. As we have only a few days left in Hoi An we started to organise our plans for the remaining few weeks in Vietnam.

Our first port of call will be Hue, which we visited briefly on our tour of SE Asia, back in late May, before following the coast to Dong Hoi and a few days spent exploring the national park and famous caves at Phong Nha. From there it’s on to Ninh Binh, via a flight to Hanoi and a 2hr bus south to this adventure playground.

Our hotel will be celebrating its first birthday tomorrow, so the preparations for the party are already in full swing and we were honoured to be one of the first to get their photo in the hotel lobby.

This afternoon we were back into Hoi An old town to pick up a shirt that we’ve had made by a local tailor. Andy had bought a short sleeved shirt whilst we were in Malaysia and loves it so much that we got it copied and made up in a deep blue colour. The shirt has been made from scratch in 2 days and all for just £16.

The great news is the newly made up shirt is as good as we hoped! Added to this the tailor made it clear it was drizzle proof too…..!!!

After the success with the shirt, we went in search of a leather bag for our daughter Amelia.

After a mostly wet day, Hoi An centre was a lot quieter than other nights which made it easier to navigate and we were able to stop and take photos of the lantern shops, without an invasion of South Korean tourists descending.

Our luck seems in tonight, as Michelle negotiated the purchase of a black leather bag for Amelia.

After the purchases we made our way to Hoi An Cuisine, a restaurant we had spotted a couple of nights before which does great street food with a twist.

As we were not too hungry, Andy went for a Vietnamese chicken salad and soup, whilst Michelle opted for fresh spring rolls with pork and shrimp. The food looked and tasted so delicious and healthy to boot. It really does feel like the food we will continue to eat when we return to the Uk.

We spent an enjoyable hour at the restaurant marvelling at the success of the food and how much we are loving our extended stay in Hoi An. It’s been a real treat to stay in such a wonderful part of Vietnam and get to know the people and the Hoi An area. We would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of visiting the country.

After dinner there was just enough time for Michelle to negotiate one more purchase, a special gift for her sister Deborah. Hopefully she’ll like it!

We are getting used to navigating our way around Hoi An and catching a glimpse of life for the locals.

Also the beauty of the buildings in and around the old town whose beauty does not dim even after visiting for the six or seventh time during our two week stay.

Having returned to the hotel we went to bed reasonably early and set our alarm for 2am to watch the Euros final between England & Spain. Sadly lightning didn’t strike again, Kane & Co were unable to overturn the might of the Spanish footballing wizards losing 2.1. It’s such a shame, but in truth we were just so pleased they made it to the final and put in a reasonable performance.

With the game finishing around 4am here in Vietnam, we returned to our slumber in the hope of getting a few more hours before a special hotel bday breakfast at 8.30am. Until then.