Hoi An - our favourite place!

We had an overnight bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An.  As the bus didn't have a toilet there were a few pee's had on the side of the road.  Luckily we could check into our guest house in Hoi An upon arrival at 7am.  We had a bit more sleep before venturing out into the Old Town.  We bought a concession ticket that allowed us entry into five old houses, temples and museums.  I enjoyed these as they were quite quick visits, only taking 20 minutes to look through. The old town is lovely - lanterns hanging up everywhere (which look amazing at night) & quaint little shops selling shoes, suits, lanterns, and lots of restaurants. We loved the food in Hoi An. The traditional pancakes are crispy and filled with bean sprouts and prawns.  We ate a very local restaurant on our first night that had a set menu.  We were given spring rolls, crispy pancakes, grilled pork, and pork meatballs.  We got a huge mountain of salad and rice paper.  We were shown how to make our rolls - the spring rolls even got rolled up! So yum! 

For our first full day we hired bikes from our guest house and after breakfast started pedalling towards the beach.  As it was only 6km away we got there fairly quickly and soon found ourselves a sun lounger. We liked the set up as all the restaurants had sun loungers and umbrellas set up which were free to use if we bought food or drinks with them - easily done.  After our day at the beach we headed back to the old town to check out another temple. 

On our way to dinner we went past tailor shops so we popped into one and before I knew it I had two dresses ordered to pick up the following day.  I liked them so much when I picked them up that I got a third one made! Three dresses for £50. Back to dinner - we found a little side road that was lined with road side eateries.  Each eatery was run by one family.  The prices were cheap and the food excellent. We ate here for the remainder of our meals, trying a different family stall each night.

Day two was another beach day after spending the morning doing some paper work for our shipment of goods soon to arrive in NZ, and me firing off a job application. When you have slow internet and old computers jobs that should be quick end up taking ages!  Grrr.  

In Hoi An there were many restaurants offering cooking classes and as we loved the food so much we booked ourselves a cooking class for the following day. That night when walking to dinner we past a suit shop called Mr Xê, where Nath ordered a tailor made suit.  Somehow, I also got talked into buying a blazer.

The cooking class was amazing! It started with a buffet breakfast at 7:45am and there were so many stations set up in the restuarant all dishing up something different.  I think it was the best breakfast I have ever had in my life! It was definitely more like lunch or dinner food but it was fun to eat something different for breakfast.  

After breakfast we were taken on a boat down the river to the local markets where we were given a very detailed tour. We were told that meat is ordered for the dish you want to cook.  For example you don't say you want chicken, you say I want chicken to make soup, or chicken to grill, as they believe old chickens, or male, or female chickens are best for certain types of cooking.

When we returned to the restuarant we were given another tour around all the different stations to see food being prepared and cooked.  We saw noodles being cut and I tried it but was no good.  We saw some pretty gross foods and got to try them.  I ate a silk worm from the silk worm salad, and we both ate frog legs from the lemon grass and chili stir fry.  We declined to eat the chicken embryos. 

Then the cooking started.  We had a cooking station each with all the ingredients set up.  Up front was one of the most famous chefs in Vietnam, Ms Vy.  She did a demonstration of each dish and then we had to copy her as best we could.  There were lots of assistants on hand to help out.  We made a soup, crispy pancakes, mango salad, and grilled chicken.  The food was delicious.   

After the cooking class it was time to visit Mr Xê and pick up our flash new gears.

This was our last day in Hoi An and we were gutted to be leaving early the next day.  To make up for my sadness at leaving I bought some lanterns to cheer me up!