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 100 – Hue to Hoi An.

We woke up just before 9am, chucked something on and made our way downstairs for the breakfast buffet. It looked better in photos online but was still very satisfying. Gotta love some watermelon and rice for breakfast! We then picked up our washing and went back upstairs to pack ready for check out and the bus at 1pm. Chrissy bought some elephant pants, we had a small lunch in Why Not and got on the bus.

The journey was only about 4 hours and the bus even had wifi which made the time pass faster. Sunflower Hotel offer a free pick up service from the bus station and were waiting for us when we arrived, which was lovely, making the journey even easier!

We arrived in Hoi An late afternoon and as it was the 14^th day of the Luna calendar (making it a full moon), the monthly Lantern festival was on. We walked down to the river early evening and the river was already filling up with little paper lanterns, lit with candles inside. 

It was beautiful to see them floating down the river and just seeing the whole town come to life with people and celebration. I think what made the difference was lack of cars and motorbikes to disturb the atmosphere, it was just being filled with music and people instead. We walked around for a while and then stopped for dinner in a restaurant overlooking the river. 

We decided here that we should join in with the whole thing, so after dinner we hopped on a little boat, which only cost a couple of quid and included two lanterns for us to put in the water. It was very romantic and also felt a bit like we were in Tangled. After here we walked through the busy streets back to the hotel.