Hoi An

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From when I last posted we made our way to the beautiful Hoi An. This was after a 13 hour night train from Nha Trang, our last stopping point! Luckily, Yasmin and I slept most of the way so wasn't too bad. We arrived in Hoi An after a short coach journey from the station at about half one and headed straight into town. This riverside town is beautiful and best known for it's tailors who can whip up a suit tailor made in 2 hours! The scenery is very different from the last two stops with a strong japanese and chinese influence in the architecture and buildings with lanterns hanging from most. It's also a lot quiter than Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh with a lot less hassle from shop owners than in other places. In town Yas and I had some lunch before walking the streets and finiding our way to the best tailors in town (the same one that the Top Gear trio got their horrendous suits made on the show!) and got myself some trousers made for work next year. We then walked through the cobbled streets to find some amazing souvenire shops selling paintings and crafts. Yasmin bought some postcard sized oil paintings on rice paper and i bought a couple of A3 sized canvas paintings for around 15 pounds for my room next year! We also bought some fresh mango's, lychees and Mango steans (very sweet white fruit) for just a few dollars from a local market.

In the evening we went to a restaurant on the river with the rest of our group and tried the local delicacy "White Rose" which consists of pork in a dumpling! After dinner we went across the river and sat with some of the guys from our group and had some 20p beers sat on a balcony overlooking the lit up river.

Today we got up early for a bicycle tour which took us into the countryside and eventually to a fishing village where our guide lived. He took us to the local pottery where both Yasmin and I were able to give pot making a go, a lot harder than u think! We then went to a local river to have a go at fishing which although not the funnest of activities it was great to see how the local people earn their money and put food on the table...i caught a fish the size of your little finger while Yasmin found little enjoyment from it! We all lauhed however when one of the local boys who was probably about 6 was fishing on the other side of the river when he got a bit over excited and fell in the river! All the other boys laughed at him too! Another local lad had been out on the river collecting ducklings in a cage to presumambly to eat at some point in the future. The kid can't have been older than 4/5 but was very funny seeing him lifting this huge cage whilst little ducklings escaped from the bottom and then seeing him running around after them and then being slapped by his big brother for nearly losing them! Was great to see the kids who although had nothing were happier than a lot of the children u see at home. We then went back to the giudes house to have some food homecooked by his wife which was beautiful. Pork Spring rolls followed by fresh snapper and noodles with fresh fruit for pudding! We then cycled back home for a shower and to sooth the burn i'd sustained on my shoulders despite factor 30 suncream! The sun hear is ridiculously hot and so so humid!

Tonight we are going to a cooking class to learn how to make some of the local food which should be fun and hopefully get some recipes to keep hold of for when we're home. It is also the full moon tonight so the town turns off all electricity at night time and everything is lit up by lanterns so will try to get some good pictures! We leave tomorrow morning for a 4 hour coach journey up to Hue but we don't really feel ready to leave and would love to stay another night!

Jamie and Yasmin x

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