Hoi An

Hoi an is famed for its tailoring, cuisine and old buildings and on first impressions we were not disapointed. In fact we were surprised at the many streets of old buildings, still in tact and looking so quaint. 

We spent a total of 4 days in Hoi An, which was enough to recover from our Easy Rider tour. 

On our first day, we frequented one of the many (many) tailoring stores that are around the town. The intention...tailor made shirts ! Oh yes, the time had come for some shopping. You can have anything you want made. They are well geared up for the western tourists, with books and books of the latest fashion. Male or female, you can get anything from the catalogues. Although fear not, if it is not in the mountain of books/catalogues, then some shops hand you a computer and they will copy it straight from the website. Hmmmm, this could get expensive. 

I setlled on just getting some work shirts and held back on a full blown suit. (although it was VERY tempting). We had been cautioned that the quality needed to be closely looked at, but within 24 hours i had 4 shirts ready for the first fitting. They insist on 3 fittings in total to make sure you are happy with it. 

Kip also managed to get a few little things made. A nice beach dress and also a cocktail dress. All a nice little bargain !

Day 3 and we had booked ourselves on a cookery course at one of the many local restaurants that host them. We had been given a steer to a place called the Lighthouse and were not disappointed (Thanks Laura). After meeting at 10am at the local market, we joined 2 others and our guide (Linh) and spent a few hours just browsing the markets and learning about the local foods. This was anything from the various types of rices, lentel, beans, to the array of new fruits and vegetables. Most of them unrecognisable to most, but we got a few. The "meat"section of the market was not exactly our highlight but still interesting. 

The weather was lowsy and rain the entire day, so we had been fortunate to be inside the market or the venue for our cooking lesson. 

After we had tasted, prodded and sniffed the majority of the produce in the market, we headed across the river to the Lighthouse Restaurant and place where we would turn the ingredients into lunch !

We were to prepare and cook four Vietnamese dishes and then serve them for lunch. The first dish was traditional Vietnamese spring rolls. These were vegetable and fresh prawn. The next dish was a chicken clay pot with a ton of ingredients to give a whole host of flavours (Sorry Lin, i am sure we can pass on the recipe, there was a lot flying in the saucepan!). The third dish was a signature dish of the main Lighthouse Restaurant, stuffed squid (Kip had the task of doing the stuffing bit!)
The final dish was a simple one of water spinach.

The group we had were a good laugh and so the course went on longer than we thought, but at about 3pm we finally served a 4 course lunch...and you know what...it wasn`t half bad ! By then we were both properly hank marvin !

Our time in Hoi An was mainly chilled and it was nice to spend time in a place that had characther without the hustle and bustle of a large city. The quanit streets transformed at night and they restricted the cars and mopeds so you could wander and admire the streets in peace and quiet - a nice touch.  

On our final day we packed up our stuff early and headed for Danang, the local major town about 30 minutes up the coast. With the unexpected time spent on the Easy Rider tour, we decided to fly up to Hanoi. This was a bonus as the other alternative was a 18 hour bus journey. 

So thank you Hoi an and hello Ha Noi (try saying that fast 10 times !)