It's good seeing people from home and today I met Mel Thomas and three of her friends who are visiting Hoi An. Mel runs a resto in Trenthem and along with her partner they also had two others who work in the resto. Laura, Kate and Katie. We arranged to meet them at Tuyens at An Bang beach and eat seafood but first we were besieged with trinket sellers who by some magic sensed that fresh meat was available and we ended up with about four clustered around us. They have turns the girl who called herself Lunar or maybe Luna, a lot of them take western names as we have trouble remembering and pronouncing their Viet ones. Most of the sellers speak reasonable English and I assume thats why they get the gig at An Bang beach which is has predominantly western visitors. After the feeding frenzy we had small clams, mango salad and squid and I tried a vodka lime juice which went down well.

It was good to see Mel again and she mentioned her friend Laura wanted to go for a ride on a scooter so after dinner I took her down Cua Dai road to the lighthouse and on the way back we called into the very palatial resort Sunshine Premium . It didn't take much talking to get past the desk and we sauntered down the pool layouts and there are many pools there to a bar where we sat and had the most expensive lime juice in Hoi An, 75,000 for a glass of juice you can get anywhere for 30,000. My nephew stayed at this place at one time and prices are like 300-400 a night. When I came to pay at the bar the waiter said accompany me sir and led us off through the foyer to the front desk where I settled up. You can't actually pay for anything at the bar you just charge it to your room and I should have thought faster and made up a room number but being a reasonably honest codger I didn't.

I took Laura back to the other girls who were still at An Bang sipping cocktails at their own private bar on the beach which belongs to the Hoi An Boutique resort they are staying in.

Tonight Nick Hai and I went to Con Chai and it appears Hien has flown the coop. They have a new staff and Hiens son is running the show now.