Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The day stared with a walking tour of Hoi An with our guide Hi. Hoi An is a lovely town all be it very full of tourists, but if you can ignore that it is beautiful with a lot to see. The Old Town is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and closed to cars which makes it much nicer to walk around. It is full of old Japanese merchant houses, Chinese Temples and old tea warehouses. The first thing we went to see was the Japanese covered bridge; built in 1593, construction started in the year of the monkey and finished in the year of the dog - hence a pair of each animal guards either end of the bridge. Next was one of the old houses owned by Phùng Hu'ng. Very lovely, but basically full of people selling crap. We then visited a house where we learned how silk was made, another excuse to sell crap to the tourists (all be it nicer than before) but interesting nonetheless! We then watched a traditional music show, much more enjoyable than the Water Puppet Show and more interesting than it might sound! Lastly was one of the many Temples, very lovely and full of the biggest incense sticks I've ever seen!
The rest of the day was free for us to explore the town. There was still a lot to see and do. First stop was Yaly, one of the best tailors in town! The place is amazing, full of beautiful and immaculately dressed Vietnamese women, who once you have searched the Internet and their extensive catalogue collection measure you up for the clothes you want. Tom went for a suit, three shirts - which later became five because he was so happy with the results - and a coat. I went for a dress and a winter coat. We were asked to come back the next day for our first fitting! It is amazing how quickly they turn things around, but they do have over 200 tailors working 24 hours a day.
We had a bit of time to kill before our evening cooking class so managed to fit in a bit more shopping some pho soup and a shoe fitting. Tom got some 'blue suede shoes' and I got some brown leather boots all for $100.
The cooking class was held in one of the local restaurants. Sadly it turned out to be more of a cooking demonstration. However, we did get to make our own spring rolls, which were divine and then got to eat what we saw being cooked. The food was amazing, although we didn't get to cook it all! We had, Vietnamese pancakes, green papaya salad and white tuna wrapped in banana leaves. Delicious....
- comments