Hoi An

We left Hanoi and boarded a plane for a short 1 hour, 20 min flight to Hoi An, in central Vietnam. Known for custom clothing and shoes, this town is a mecca for shoppers - perfect for Stephanie (Steven only let her buy one dress:/)!

Our lame guide (more on that later) picked us up from the airport and we checked into our hotel. Since it was smack in the middle of the day and ridiculously hot, he suggested we do our walking tour of the town in the afternoon. Fine by us.

He came back to the hotel a few hours later and basically showed us nothing. We walked, he tried to explain things to us that didn't quite make sense, and that was our afternoon. At least we got some exercise?

A view of the river that runs through the city:

We did have a really nice dinner at the Mango Rooms, a restaurant recommended by the Australian ladies we met in Halong Bay. The chef, native to Hoi An, traveled around the world for a few years and had some really interesting dishes, such as duck with chocolate sauce - it was yummy! The chocolate sauce wasn't very sweet, not the typical idea of chocolate, but it worked.

We woke up early the next morning to try and beat the rest of the big tourist buses to the ruins of My Son Sanctuary, Hindu temples built between the 4th and 13th centuries by the Champa Kingdom. Read more here.

Even though there are several groups of ruins in different areas, our lame guide only took us to one because he said the other sites weren't worth it - some had been destroyed in the Vietnam War, others didn't last through the centuries. Would have been nice to see, but it was starting to rain so we decided to trust our guide.

The afternoon was spent walking around town before meeting up with the German couple we met in Halong Bay for dinner. And where else to go for dinner in Vietnam but a crepe place! The chef is French, but sadly the crepes are far from being the real thing...we'll just have to wait another month or so when we go to Brittany for the authentic ones. We can't get upset about a so-so meal when it was only a few dollars.

Hoi An is also known for offering cooking classes to tourists and we thought it'd be fun and different. Our group of 22 was divided into 3 groups and we walked through the market to learn about native fruits and vegetables.

Making fish cakes:

This picture made us chuckle - notice the heels while hacking some meat with a cleaver...all while trying to avoid fish guts on the ground:

After the market, we took a boat over to the cooking school/restaurant where we learned some traditional Vietnamese recipes, including spring rolls, pancakes (salty, not sweet), Asian eggplant in a clay pot, and seafood salad. Conclusion? It's much easier to just go to a restaurant. Kidding, sort of, but making the rice paper for the spring rolls gave us a new appreciation for anything involving rice paper.

We had a great time - our chef was really funny and made us work for our lunch!

Steven also wanted everyone to see his beautiful tomato rose and cucumber hand fan:

Stephanie's didn't turn out quite as well as Steven liked to point out, but it wasn't that bad: