Day 101 – Hoi An to Nha Trang.

We were being picked up around 8.30am for our cookery course so checked out just before. As we got downstairs we discovered there was free breakfast that we didn’t have time to eat, probably a good thing in the end!

Our first stop was a trip to the market to buy our ingredients for our courses. We made 4 dishes, these were; Vietnamese salad rolls with peanut sauce, Vietnamese crepes, beef vermicelli and rice noodle soup with beef.

 After the market we took a boat trip along the river where we prepared the beansprouts and just enjoyed the view. We even sailed past a petrol station in the middle of the river! We then got moved from this boat to a smaller boat and got to wear those little triangle hats and sailed through some water coconuts.

We booked our course with Thuan Tinh Island and it was really good. Learnt a lot about the millions of ingredients they use and we didn’t get back to our hostel until half 2, so that’s 6 hours of cooking fun! I was going to choose a favourite dish but I don’t think I can, they were all so delicious, I’ll have to try them out when I’m back home!

We didn’t do a lot with our afternoon and were picked up for our overnight bus around 6pm. This journey was around 12 hours, we watched Tangled and chilled out right at the back of the bus.

Day 17 – Shopping & Friends.

Today I decided I wasn’t going to set an alarm and that I would wake up whenever my body wanted too. I woke up about 10.30, which isn’t too bad! After breakfast I wondered down to the tram stop to get on the free City Circle tram to Spencer Street. As I walked to the tram stop I realised I’m only a stones throw away from Victoria State Library and the shopping centre next door, it was funny to look at things and feel like I knew where I was because I recognised it from when Chrissy and I came here a few years ago.

I got off the tram and walked down Spencer Street because I knew there was an outlet mall right behind the station, what I didn’t realise was they had a Coles underneath which meant I could do clothes and food shopping at the same time! After looking in some shops and leaving some items I wasn’t sure about I found Supre! Supre is the Australian topshop/forever 21 and this being an outlet store made it so much cheaper. I spent $12 on 2 tops that I’ll probably wear as dresses and another top. That’s about £7, bargain!

Am I the only one who loves going around supermarkets in foreign countries? I just love exploring and seeing things that we don’t have and what UK food items they do have. I wanted to buy some things that would last a few days and I could mix and match if I wanted to. My main meal was going to consist of a bunch of stuff with rice mixed all together with some cream cheese as they don’t do Crème Fraiche over here. It ended up being pepper, carrot, mushroom, spinach, onion and some ham (which really wasn’t needed). It tasted delicious! 

That was after working out how to light the gas stove with the girl next to me… seriously it’s not as straightforward as it should be! We decided to sit together after we cooked and watch the tennis, quickly finding out she’s into it and also she comes from Winchester! After dinner I went back to my room and found a new girl had arrived, she had spent the whole day at the tennis so we already had something to talk about. She originally comes from Derby but went to uni in Bournemouth. So by the end of my first real day in Melbourne, I have 2 new friends, GO ME!