Vietnam - A nice little mini break in Hoi An

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Day 18.

A nice and early start for our flight to out next stop Ho Ain, only an hour flight so we get to our home stay at 11am, they let us check in anyways and we have a serious power nap (such a hard life) we wake up not feeling to great, the anti malaria tablets are horrible but we borrow push bikes from the home a ride the 3km into town mid afternoon, have a little wander, loads of tailors, and book onto a cooking class with a tour of the local vegetable village and the market for the next day, and use the lonely planet book to find our eatery, we settle on bale well, which only serves one dish, an ample supply of fresh lettuce and herbs, prawn spring rolls, grilled satay pork, grilled minced pork, fried egg pancakes and rice paper, enough to roll it all together, dip it and devour it. Now as the sun starts to set Hoi An turns into and otherworldly place, now we where a bit gutted we had missed the full moon lantern festival by one day, but the description of the festival and how the town was anyways are almost identical, Locally made lanterns adorn almost every single shop and restaurant, small children selling candle lanterns for lovers to float down the river and stalls everywhere selling some nice trinkets, others selling the same stuff you see everywhere. After a while we cycle back to our house, for a nice shower and the opportunity to watch monsters university for the millionth time :-)



Day 19.

Our tour starts at 9.30 this morning so we have breakfast and wait patiently out the front, firstly and man turns up on a 125cc scooter with 3 push bikes balanced (not tied) on the back and then our guide arrives on her own scooter to take us around Hoi an firstly through rice fields and fish farms to our first destination a vegetable farm, which was a series of allotments of varying sizes tended too by local farmers and sold in the local markets keeping everything cheap and local, we stopped and spoke with an elderly farming couple who showed us around their plot, explained what each herb or vegetable was and even tried to get us to eat birds eye chillies, he then demonstrated how he watered his patch, with two watering can on a bamboo pole balanced across his shoulders, the water was below ground level and for me was a struggle to get low enough to a laughable amount of water in. The old boy was 91 got right down filled them both fully and watered his whole garden by hand, whilst they laughed at the guy opposite who had a hose. Back on the bikes now for a scenic ride into the town to the restaurant for a spot of refreshment and a stroll around the market to pick up some ingredients. Everything is fresh, really fresh most of the seafood is alive apart from the large tuna that was hacked up and the squid that was being prepped, same with the meat our guide was telling us all the animals are killed in the morning and then everything is sold in the market. Kayley didn't like the everything part, plenty of tripe on offer aswell as brains, and even a face or two, at least it isn't wasted. We head back to the restaurant to get started on our menu of ;



Fried spring rolls

Green mango salad with shrimp

Braised chicken with lemon grass and chilli



Now most of the preps as done, Jamie Oliver style, but we had fun making the spring rolls and the green mango salad and the best part was sitting down to eat the mountain of food we had just cooked, the spring rolls are amazing and they have so many different types of rice paper for different spring rolls they never get boring. We had finished by mid afternoon so went back tour lovely air conditioned room and to plan our next day. Once the sun had gone down and was a bit cooler(still about 30 degrees) we jumped on the bikes and headed back into town for some more local food and some Bogof cocktails at the backpackers bar, 2 rum and red bulls for £1.50, when in Rome, (cue singing queen I want to ride my bicycle)



Day 20

After breakfast we decide that we want to visit the marble mountain, it's about 25km away and the trips were around $16 each so we decide to hire our own motorbike for £3 and make our own way. 25km on a 125cc took longer than expected but we arrived after 40mins and a woman beckons us to park outside her shop ( expecting us to buy something later, we don't, what are we gonna do with a 500kg marble statue of Buddha?) We take the lift up, lazy we know! and wander around the mountain, and first glance it's the usual pagoda and stupa's, but with some exploration we found the natural caves home to some large and very impressive Buddhas, some with swastikas (an original Buddhist symbol) and some light shining through from the ceiling (very surreal and reminiscent of an Indiana Jones film), and tremendous views of the surrounding area. We use the stairs to get down, not as many as we expected and avoid the woman's shop like the plague. Instead of turning back we get the map out and look for somewhere to go next, and we decide to head to monkey mountain another 40 min drive along the coast could be worse. At this point I realise we must have a leaky fuel bike as we have burned through all of the fuel and haven't gone that far, so another fill up, £3 more! And we start up the mountain stopping off at a few choice vantage points to take a few snaps. Then turn back and make the long drive back, stopping off mid way for iced tea. It's about 4 when we get back, we have 2 days left and decide to have a little splurge and get some clothes made as Hoi An is the capital city of tailors. Trip advisor is our saviour here as there is so many it's hard to know who make them in sweat shops & who are actual tailors, we settle on one but cannot find it anywhere, so we go to BeBe tailors. It was a long process as they have a price range depending on fabrics and style but Kayley picks two designs of in different colours and I settle on the mid price range! Fittings booked in for 11am the next day, crazy. So time for another meal and some cheapy drinky night.



Day 21.

A lazy Sunday is on the cards today, we get on our push bikes and go for our first fitting at 11. Very sweaty when we arrive but they have complimentary cold water and frozen flannels! Immense. First fitting done, looking good a few minor adjustments needed and asked to come back at 4:30pm. So we head to the beach a 5km ride (something my sunburnt hands didn't need) and we find a spot underneath a coconut tree where Kayley can sit in the sun, bronzing away and I can cower in the shade like the albino I am. The time rolls around quickly and we need to get back for a quick rinse and for our second fitting. Pretty much perfect, so they say we can pick them up in the morning. Another night of fine Vietnamese food, no drink this time (we are not alcoholics)



Day 22.

After breakfast, and a phone call to our Aussie bank as the card wouldn't work and we had no way of paying for our clothes and the hotel, we go and pick up our clothes which for £220 was a bargain, Kayley got two dresses made and I have a suit jacket and trousers and a shirt all made to measure and finished perfectly. The beach was a bit dirty yesterday and very crowded (it's summer holidays apparently) so we find a hotel with a pool and pay £1 each to hang out there all day, for some reason no one from the hotel appears all day and we can not understand why. By the time we leave I am suitably burnt (might have to invest in a factor 80+ I think) and head to our home stay for a cold shower and a power nap before we head out to enjoy our last night in Hoi An which for both of us so far has been our favourite place.

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