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Hoi An
It’s safe to say that the much anticipated Hoi An lived up to our expectations. The hostel was the best we had stayed in. Large pool area and normal beds in the dormitories was luxury in backpacking terms. The old town itself was based along the river with a beautiful bridge linking the two rows of restaurants/shops. There are some really nice boutiquey shop and nothing like the amount of touristy crap being sold all over Hanoi. There were also many rooftop bars and nice coffee shops. The town was filled with colour by all the lanterns hanging up everywhere.
On arriving we bumped into the girls we met on the castaways tour. We decided to meet them for dinner. Liv was suffering from heat stroke and had had a tough week. She was able to come for dinner with us but had to get a taxi for a 5 minute walk. It was a lovely evening catching up on all the things that had happened to us all in the week or so. Time in travel terms is very confusing, you feel like it’s been a long time due to all the things you pack in but also it goes so quickly. They were off the next day but it was so nice to reconnect with them.
The next day I was up early and so went on a run to check out the beach. It was a long beach with palm trees lining it. But some parts seemed quite littered. We decided to explore the town. We hired bicycles from the hostel which turned out to be pretty rubbish. We also managed to overshoot town by km or so which wasn’t ideal in the heat. We loved all the little jewellery and gift shops. Charlotte and I bought matching rings which were silver and were made into a wave pattern. Cute to have sister rings to represent our trip.
We were so hot after the morning’s excursion that we spent the rest of the day chilling by the pool. We quickly got chatting to people and I ended up involved in a big game of water volleyball. We got in contact with some girls we met in the caves in Phong Nha. We ended up in a rooftop bar with them having cocktails. It was nice to get to know the girls properly. They were medics from Liverpool uni and had just done a placement working in a hospital in Malaysia. The four of us paid for a boat ride on the river and where we got to release lanterns onto the river. The bridge was all lit up and we admired all the lanterns hung up around town as we drifted along the river. It was funny going under the bridge though as we all had to lay flat, there was so little space to get underneath.
The morning was spent shopping and at the tailors. I was getting a black dress made for work events and Charlotte wanted a two piece Chinese style outfit. It was a very efficient process picking styles and getting measured. They asked us to come back for our first fitting the following morning. We linked up with the girls again in the afternoon. They were leaving that evening so were keen to do some traditional crafts. We researched pottery and lantern making. We found a lantern making place nearby and headed there, picking up some girls they knew from home enroute. The Vietnamese people running the class helped us a lot with the precise sticking and cutting involved in lantern making.
Later on Charlotte and I went for drinks on a rooftop bar seeking some sunset views. Unfortunately it was too cloudy but we enjoyed the setting and some time to reflect on our trip. We then organised to meet Seb, the medic we met at Mai Chau. We had been keeping track of him as we were following the same route in the same time frame. It was nice to catch up with him now and again. We went for dinner with him and drinks at an Irish bar. It had a band playing who were Filipino and very good.
We booked onto a cookery class through the hostel. It involved various parts of the process of Vietnamese food preparation. First we were shown round the food markets and the guide explained the key ingredients used in Vietnamese cooking. Then we were taken on a boat down the river to spend some time with the fishermen who used basket boats. It turned out to be a bit of the show, the local Vietnamese boat riders had music blaring out of speakers and were dancing. They also used the reeds by the river to make headbands and rings for us.
After a couple of hours of being taken around various places we got to the cookery school. We were impressed with the set up where we would all cook together and contribute the end meal. We chopped and fried food using chop sticks. The spring rolls and papaya salad were my favourite dishes. It was interesting to see what ingredients went into the dishes we had been eating while in Vietnam. Afterwards we went into town for our second fitting. We were both happy with the end result of our outfits. The main changes we made to the originals was making the skirts shorter or tops lower. There’s definitely a different fashion in Vietnam.
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