Hoi An
Here I am in Hoi An (not to be confused with Hanoi). A wonderful little town 3 hours bus ride south of Hue. Our hotels are getting increasingly better in quality as we travel down Vietnam (apparently people that do the reverse tour of ours aren't as impressed as obviously their hotels go to lower grade) so it's been one excitement after another. This is not to say at any point have the hotels been bad, Geckos has done an amazing job of making a great tour.
Our bus ride from Hue to Hoi An depicted the Vietnamese country side beautifully with the stereotypical women in conical hats fiddling around in rice fields (I am sure they love me refering to it like that). On arrival in Hoi An we had their local specialty for dinner, 'double spring rolls', which involve a fried spring roll wrapped up in rice paper with beef/pork, cucumber, coriander, lettuce, carrot then dipped in peanut sauce. Simply devine, and the owner of the restaurant was an absolute hoot, she was wrapping them up for some people and feeding them, made for some very funny photos.
After dinner came the all important tailor fittings. I wasn't going to get anything but on bus in I saw a very cute jacket out the window and caved into getting it. I am so glad I did, it is incredibly cute and warm for winter, so look out I'm going to be the cutest girl on the block. We also got custom made shoes, and again I caved and got one pair of extremly hot ankle boots which I will show off to EVERYONE on my return.
Today we were up bright and early for a bike ride to the beach and this time it wasn't motorbikes. Yes ladies and gentleman I rode a bike for the first time in years, off to a very shaky start but I am happy to announce that there were no crashes and it was actually quite enjoyable. Our reward for a bike ride was a few hours of lazing around on the beach being hassled by vendors who told us if we buy their goods "no shit will happen" and not "to be lazy, be crazy". Needless to say their tactics didn't work and no one bought anything.
The afternoon was jam packed with a walking tour of Hoi An taking us to all the Chinese and Japanese cultural sites of Hoi An, some very beautiful architecture. Then for our final fitting of clothes, like I said before my jacket is absolutely so cute! Love it.
Tonight we did a Vietnamese cooking class and might I saw we are all the keen chef, our food was absolutely delish even if a little too lemongrassy. We also got to pick up our boots but because one girl, Fleur and I were so super quick we decided to get a motorbike home together (that's right people 3 on a bike including our rider!!) we practiced our haggling skills and got him down to $1.10 to take us both. Go the girls!
Tomorrow we have to take a 10 hour day train, which I must admit I am not really looking forward to, but I am sure we will make the most of it. I mean we have many bottles of Vietnamese rice vodka so how can you go wrong!? hehe.
Still having a blast that's the important part!
Our bus ride from Hue to Hoi An depicted the Vietnamese country side beautifully with the stereotypical women in conical hats fiddling around in rice fields (I am sure they love me refering to it like that). On arrival in Hoi An we had their local specialty for dinner, 'double spring rolls', which involve a fried spring roll wrapped up in rice paper with beef/pork, cucumber, coriander, lettuce, carrot then dipped in peanut sauce. Simply devine, and the owner of the restaurant was an absolute hoot, she was wrapping them up for some people and feeding them, made for some very funny photos.
After dinner came the all important tailor fittings. I wasn't going to get anything but on bus in I saw a very cute jacket out the window and caved into getting it. I am so glad I did, it is incredibly cute and warm for winter, so look out I'm going to be the cutest girl on the block. We also got custom made shoes, and again I caved and got one pair of extremly hot ankle boots which I will show off to EVERYONE on my return.
Today we were up bright and early for a bike ride to the beach and this time it wasn't motorbikes. Yes ladies and gentleman I rode a bike for the first time in years, off to a very shaky start but I am happy to announce that there were no crashes and it was actually quite enjoyable. Our reward for a bike ride was a few hours of lazing around on the beach being hassled by vendors who told us if we buy their goods "no shit will happen" and not "to be lazy, be crazy". Needless to say their tactics didn't work and no one bought anything.
The afternoon was jam packed with a walking tour of Hoi An taking us to all the Chinese and Japanese cultural sites of Hoi An, some very beautiful architecture. Then for our final fitting of clothes, like I said before my jacket is absolutely so cute! Love it.
Tonight we did a Vietnamese cooking class and might I saw we are all the keen chef, our food was absolutely delish even if a little too lemongrassy. We also got to pick up our boots but because one girl, Fleur and I were so super quick we decided to get a motorbike home together (that's right people 3 on a bike including our rider!!) we practiced our haggling skills and got him down to $1.10 to take us both. Go the girls!
Tomorrow we have to take a 10 hour day train, which I must admit I am not really looking forward to, but I am sure we will make the most of it. I mean we have many bottles of Vietnamese rice vodka so how can you go wrong!? hehe.
Still having a blast that's the important part!