Hoi An, good food, great clothes

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I had looked forward to our Hoi An, everyone I spoke to who had visited Vietnam all spoke romantically about how much they loved Hoi An and wished they spent longer there soaking up the atmosphere. Sadly, we only had two full days there… there was a lot that we wanted to get through.
We arrived at our hotel, the Thanh Xuan , it was really cheap and really wonderful. The staff were friendly, big room, clean, perfect. We set about exploring the old town, the kids had just come out of school and were all dressed in their fantastic traditional school uniforms. The buildings were colourful and shops were full of local arts, crafts and cloths. We soon walked up an appetite and decided to head to Café Des Amis on the water front, I’d read about this restaurant on the web… There were only two other people in there but we thought what the hell lets go for it. There were no menus, just the choice of a meat, fish or vegetarian set dinner, we went for one fish and one meat. The waiter turned out to be the owner’s son and like many of the Vietnamese people we met, he loved to practice his English and talk about football. He started to bring out the dishes, and oh my god, we were not disappointed. We had eaten the most delicious food throughout our holiday but this was by far the tastiest! If you are reading this blog and heading to Hoi An, you have to make time for this restaurant, you won’t be disappointed. We were told that the menu changes every day, so if we came back the next day he would serve us a whole new set dinner. After about 5 dishes each for about £3, we eventually rolled out of the restaurant, and promised to go back the next day. We had also met Captain Dan in the restaurant, he owns his own boat and takes tourists up and down the river, his English is brilliant, and he is full of stories, well worth a chat to.
After we’d walked off our large dinner we went to Yaly’s tailors, this place was recommended to us by some friends… 4 dresses, one suit and 4 shirts later we headed back to the hotel to get some shut eye before dinner.
That night we went for dinner at Congo’s, this place was looked alright, not too authentic, but the food was actually pretty good. Then it was time go to bed as we were getting up early for our cooking class.
The cooking class started at the market, our guide took around different stalls and explained how to spot the freshest fish and talked about the different types of herbs and veggies and what they were good for. We then got onto a boat and headed down the river to the Red Bridge school, along the way we spotted a Kingfisher bird perched on one of the trees overlooking the river. The cooking class was really good, the chef had a wicked sense of humour which added to the value. We made veggie hot pot, pepper squid, pineapple boat, steamed our own rice paper and made pancakes. My appliances weren’t the best, but it was top fun. The lunch which followed was also very good. Once we arrived back into the town, it was time to go to our tailor fittings, it was all good, so good in fact that we ordered more! We then decided to get some desert at Miss Ly’s, fantastic banana pancakes!
That night we went back to Café Des Amis for dinner, and we were not disappointed, the new menu was just as delicious as the first. We both overate, it was so good.
The next day we got up early to collect our tailored clothes and then took a car up to My Son. It was a wet morning and the temples seemed to be under a layer of mist. Personally I wasn’t overly impressed by them, they looked pretty broken up by the war. From My Son, we went on to Danang airport to head on to Ho Chi Minh City.

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