Sun, sea, sand and... tailors!

These past few days, I've been soaking up the sun, getting suits made and not a great deal more. I didn't intend it to be this way: Hoi An was supposed to be a small stop en route to Saigon, but I've been infected by the holiday spirit and have spent the past 4 days here.




Before all this, I had to endure the hells of a 14 hour sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue. The man at the travel agency sold it to me saying that I was in the first class seats, and that it would be the same sort of comfort level as the sleeper train - this wasn't to be the case however. I can't sleep on planes as it is, and on the sleeper bus, I was confined to a cramped, weirdly shaped seat, with the air conditioning permanently blasting on my feet. The even better news is that I have to do it again today.




Hue was a small stop en route to Hoi An. Here, I had a much needed shower, and took a motorbike taxi round some of Hue's sights. As Vietnam's historical capital, Hue houses the citadel and a number of pagodas. The day was beautiful so it was good to visit these.




Following on from this, I had a great vegetarian lunch and a beer, all for the princely sum of 20,000 dong (80p) and got back on the bus for the 3 hour journey to Hoi An.




Hoi An is a quiet seaside town, turned tourist trap, that is home to various tailors, shoe shops, restaurants, art galleries and not a lot else. Despite this, it has a charm that I hadn't yet seen in Vietnam. The people are friendly, the streets are clean, and not all of the stuff they sell is cheap rubbish. As befits a place like this, I haven't done a great deal: I've been spending my days lazily wandering the streets, and my evenings sitting by a pool chilling out.




The highlight of my time in Hoi An was undoubtedly my half day cooking class. I found a restaurant offering one on one lessons, got them to adapt the menu to my vegetarian needs, negotiated a decent price, and I was good to go. The food I made was very simple, yet tasty and healthy.




I was taken on a tour of the local market to buy our produce. Amazing to see how fresh everything was.







For starters, I made a banana flower salad, garnished with fresh Vietnamese mint, basil and coriander, and flavoured with a lime juice based dressing. Simple but effective.





Then I was taught to make Hoi An style spring rolls, using sweet potato, chinese mushrooms, carrots and a vegetable called yellow spring. Beautiful!




For my vegetable dish, I stirfried some morning glory (green, beany looking vegetable) with some garlic and chilli. And to finish off, I made a pineapple fried rice.




Pretty much stuff that most people could make with their eyes closed, but it was interesting to learn about the different flavours and to be taught how to present the food well.



Being in Hoi An, it seemed obligatory to get some clothes made. What started off as a pair of trousers quickly developed into 2 pairs of trousers, a pair of shorts, 2 suits and a shirt. The quality was far superior to what I'd previously had done in China, and you can see the results in three months time!




What would one of my blogs be without mentioning some alcoholic beverage? Strangely enough, I met a friend from primary school, staying in the same hotel as me (I hadn't seen the guy for 10 years!), and together with a few friends, we went to a pretty riotous beach party not far from the town centre. To cut a long story short, almost everyone was swimming at like 2 in the morning.





I also visited the temples at Myson, which were some 1800 year-old Hindu influenced temples 45km from Hoi An. Many of these structures had been destroyed by the Americans during the Vietnam war, but what remained was pretty impressive. Even though the area of the complex is significantly smaller than Cambodia's Angkor Wat, this set of temples is actually older, and it was interesting to see some Hindu imagery in South East Asia.

I made a trip to China Beach (in Hoi An, not in China!!) and it was one of the best beaches I've visited for a while. Miles of white sands next to crystalline blue water were helped by the fact that the sun was blazing down, and the water was the perfect temperature. The minute we left, however, we were subjected to a tropical rainstorm!

So now, I have a two hour wait til my 14 hour sleeper bus. My ipod headphones are broken, and my current book is arduous and boring (HG Wells' An Outline of History - it reads like an encyclopedia) so I have no clue how I'm going to cope.



Wish me luck though!



Next stop Nha Trang.