5th February, 2017

We had a morning off today, so went for stroll through the old town before all the crowds appeared later in the day. I do sometimes feel that I could take a photo of every building and person (and lantern, of course) and, trust me, I have culled the ones I have taken with immense savagery! Anyway, here is a selection…..

However, the highlight of the day was a cooking class with Ms Hanh at Goian Restaurant. We were picked up from our hotel and along with the rest of our classmates, Eddie and Chloe from Liverpool and Mary from Wisconsin we set off with Hanh to the market to choose our ingredients with Hanh giving us lots of tips on what to look for when buying in Vietnam.

Having accomplished that we headed for the kitchen and our cooking class started in earnest. It was superbly organised with a recipe book each, aprons and all sorts of apparatus and utensils. We made pho (pronounced ‘fur’), which is a fabulous beef noodle soup, chilli and lemongrass chicken (pronounced ‘chicken’), crunchy country pancakes and fresh spring rolls. Hanh was a laugh a minute with a bubbly personality who seemed to be able to link any comment to a song, which she would then sing! It was surprisingly easy to follow the recipes, though some tips along the way helped. I will leave it up to you to guess which dishes are which!

The good news is that we were able to eat what we cooked (an incentive to do a good job!) and we were joined by Ken, Mary’s husband and at the end of the lesson we set off back towards our respective hotels and managed to stop for a few beers and a really good natter. Lovely people (all of us!) and we agreed to meet for dinner the next night. I am including a rather fab photo of a light display and, yes, they are sort of lanternesque!

A great day, not least as we felt we had made some great friends.

6th February, 2017

A very quick note to tell you that we did little more than go for our statutory spa and a haircut and beard trim for me. A bit of lounging by the pool, more Yahtzee (I have opened up a slight lead) and dinner with Mary and Ken at a very tasty restaurant. All in all, a wonderful stay in Hoi An. I shall miss it.

7th February, 2017

We were picked up by Banh for the drive to Da Nang airport and our flight to our next destination, Nha Trang, a beach resort further south, where we were met by our next guide, Han (spelling?), a very jolly fellow who deposited us at the Sunrise Nha Trang Beach Hotel and Spa. I must say that once again the staff could not be more welcoming and our room on the 9th floor had a tremendous view of the sea with the waves crashing in. The jacuzzi on the balcony was pretty impressive too! Our room is second floor from the top and 4th from the left under that curvy bit in the photo below.

We ventured out for something to eat, walking down the excellent esplanade, avoiding all the young couples trying to get a bit of privacy and then crossing the road which was one of the more exciting challenges in a country that makes crossing the road a test of time, motion and speed. The city is very lively, but sadly nothing like Hoi An. It is basically a modern beach resort much frequented by Russians and Chinese with little cultural heritage on show (though there is some as we discovered the next day). It is noted for seafood, though we seemed to have terrible luck on the restaurants we chose. Lots of lights though – LED have been very much adopted in Vietnam!

And so to bed! I am starting to catch up again! Famous last words………