After surviving the Hai Van pass, we were excited to be in Hoi An over the Chinese New Year period (called Tet). Hoi An is roughly halfway between Hanoi (the former capital of the North) and Ho Chi Minh City (the former capital of the South). One of the things Hoi An is most famous for is the lanterns that decorate the streets.

An activity that we had signed up for in Hoi An was a cooking class, in the nine years we have been together, Gemma has been treated to Steven’s cooking twice: once with a spaghetti bolognese which was so bad it had to be aborted and fish and chips purchased, and the second time cheese on toast which despite complaints of there not being enough cheese was consumed. So it is fair to say, doing a cooking class was mainly something Gemma wanted to do, but at the same time, getting Steve a bit more trained up in the kitchen can only be a good idea. To both our delight, it was more than just a cooking class, and instead an adventure for the day consisting of going to the market in the morning to find fresh herbs, spices other ingredients, then going on a boat trip down the river for about half an hour until a series of ladies in basket boats started to grab hold of our boat in a line. Initially, we wondered what on earth they were doing, but then it became clear we would be getting off the main boat and onto the little basket boats!

This was a lot of fun, we got to explore little backwater rivers, race each other, and occasionally be spun around in circles by the overly keen ladies that worked the boats.

After having a race against the other people on our trip, we found ourselves arriving at a platform, where we departed our basket boats and climbed up to see a restaurant which is where we’d be learning to cook Vietnamese style! The menu consisted of spring rolls, shrimp and papaya salad, braised pork and rice pancakes. Despite his previous failings, Steve quickly became teachers’ pet with our chef and was involved in all parts of the process from preparation, to cooking to the presentation.

The food was delicious, and we made everything from scratch. After eating we had half an hour to walk around outside the restaurant through the little market streets before being taken back to our hostel.

Hoi An is a beautiful city and the old town has many listed buildings which allow it to retain character from bygone centuries. As you traverse the streets you see Chinese temples, Japanese merchant houses and ancient tea warehouses. One of the top tourist attractions is the Japanese Covered Bridge, so we couldn’t help but take a few photos.

We once again bumped into several friends we have made along the way, including Libby and Bailey our Kiwi friends, Billy Elliot and his entourage, and Katherine and Ailsa our Scottish friends. It was with our Scottish friends that we decided to take a day trip out of Hoi An to marble mountains where we were able to both go into huge natural caves and also ascend up somewhat perilous paths to reach vantage points at the top of the mountains:

Before leaving Hoi An, we went on a sunset cruise, however this wasn’t out first time at the rodeo, so we came to the sunset cruise with a better idea of what to expect. Four hours of drinking and dancing on a boat docked up in the middle of a river – which was a lot of fun, especially as we knew the majority of the people on the boat by this point, as we had bumped into them all over Vietnam. Gemma made friends with a Vietnamese man on a motorbike that was passing by, maybe now that she is also a biker, she has an unbreakable biker bond? Or maybe half a dozen rum and cokes simply make her more likely to chat to random Vietnamese men?

From Hoi An we took a day bus to Ninhvana, which is a resort outside of Nha Trang. The idea was to have a bit of a retreat/getaway from the late nights, the party, the alcohol, etc. and instead have some yoga lessons, reflect on life, go kayaking, paddle boarding, go jungle trekking, etc. Ultimately we partially achieved this goal: there wasn’t a yoga teacher available (thank goodness, so we didn’t have to get up at 6 am to contort our bodies), and the retreat did have a massive bar which had party games going on every night, so it wasn’t exactly an alcohol free place to zone out. But we did go paddleboarding and kayaking, we also went jungle trekking up a mountain and then jumped into a natural spring water plunge pool at the top (which was lovely and refreshing). As with everywhere else, we have travelled in Vietnam, we ended up seeing lots of our friends from previous cities. Here are a few pictures of the retreat and a photo of us with our Scottish friends Katherine and Ailsa:

For our next stop, we were confident we’d finally not bump into any familiar faces, as we were going to Nha Trang, which is somewhere that everyone told us not to go to. One of the many reasons given was that Nha Trang is full of Russians however, we are going to Russia for a full month, so we obviously have no problems with Russians, and from the pictures we had seen, Nha Trang looked really nice. Indeed, our impressions from looking around where positive, it has a nice, well kept stretch of beach, and as the evening starts drawing in, little market stalls start being set up on the beach, and families and friends sit in groups on the sand to relax and have fun, which creates a really nice atmosphere.

A popular tourist attraction in Nha Trang is the Tháp Bà Spa (hot mineral springs, mud baths and swimming pool), which is something which was of immediate interest to Gemma. Whilst it isn’t necessarily something Steve would typically gravitate towards, as part of the philosophy of saying yes to everything when travelling, we decided to go along.

Applying mud all over your body for half an hour, then sitting in the sun for it to dry, and then having it blasted off by fierce water jets, is somehow meant to be good for your skin, leaving it smooth and radiant. We wouldn’t be able to vouch for the scientific benefits of this, but it was a fun day out which concluded with us swimming (or standing) in the thermal swimming pools (which was like being in a huge hot bath).

We enjoyed the food and drink in Nha Trang and we are well positioned to comment on the food, now we are trained, Vietnamese chefs! Our hostel had a happy hour where beer is free (from 6-7) which is something we are becoming accustomed to, so it isn’t clear how we will ever adapt back to UK society!

We felt like Nha Trang was a perfect location for us to stop for two nights, it gave us a chance to relax for a couple of days and prepare ourselves for the final leg of our journey through Vietnam: Mui Ne and Ho Chi Minh City.

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