Leaving Hoi An..

..on the opposite of a jet-train, since it takes 20 hours to get us to Saigon. Our second and last day in Hoi An was lovely and quite relaxed since we're going to have a hectic schedule from here on out. The cookery course was brilliant, probably the best thing I've done in the whole trip - and I am furnished with expertise and recipes with which to attack you all in the near future. Expect an invitation for Ban Xeo and Pho very soon :P It was a really good course too, including a walk through the market with a lady explaining what all the foods were, and seeing where all the fresh fish gets brought in and cleaned, ready for sale. Apparently the market starts at 3am! Then we got a boat to take us to the restaurant/cooking school which was about a 25-min cruise and passed some lovely scenery, to a secluded place, on an island seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We were given (our second) welcome drink, something like pineapple/orange/grenadine/coconut juice, led through the herb garden, to the lesson itself, which lasted around 2 hours and was very hands-on: it was mostly him doing a quick demo and then getting us to replicate it. I can't remember the Vietnamese names for everything he showed us, but it included summer rolls, sweet chilli dipping sauce, Vietnamese pancakes, rice paper/noodles from scratch, aubergine in a clay pot, and fish sauce. Everything is easily replicated at home, especially since I can get my hands on all of the ingredients in nearby Vietnamese restaurants. Then we ate our delicious foods, cruised back to Hoi An, and went to the hotel room where we fell asleep for a bit (clearly from the effort!). In the evening we had another lovely meal at Streets, a stroll around town to see the nightlife, in which we participated.

Taxi's here so better go, to be continued! xxx