Hoi An, Vietnam

Thursday 16th July

The weather on our first full day in Hoi An was clear and warm but a little overcast giving us some thankfull relief from the extreme heat. Mark and I headed off for a walk along the beach before breakfast. We planned to head in to the Old Town to do the walking tour by way of the 2pm shuttle so we spent the morning relaxing on the beach. Mark and Tom played a bit of footy in the water and we all had a laugh trying to navigate what can only be described as a large, coconut-style raft in the shallows and over some waves.

We have a far better impression of Hoi An Old Town after this afternoon’s visit. We had a light lunch and then enjoyed strolling the streets and visiting some of the key sites such as the Ceramic Museum, Tan Ky house, a privately owned traditional house located along the riverfront, the Japanese Covered Bridge and more local markets. Mark had a final fitting for his pants and we did a little shopping as well. The strangest part of our afternoon was bumping into John Eve’s parents (a friend from our Uni days) whilst strolling through the markets. They are here as part of a 2 week trip around Vietnam. Just shows…you are never safe!

We walked a lot today, thanks due in part to Mark’s orienteering skills, but enjoyed the challenge anyway. Although it did remind me of an episode of Gilligan’s Island where they eventually realised they kept passing the same coconut tree. It was bit the same for us except the coconut tree was replaced by a certain shop that became quite familiar to me. We survived the stress of ‘mapping 101’ and went on to have a nice evening meal at Café 96, a small ‘hole in the wall’ kind of place located along the riverfront. Lots of character and peeling paint but, great food. By the way, street numbering, although somewhat of a guide, is fairly redundant in Hoi An Old Town. Get used to it! From Café 96 we headed home for an early night as we have a cooking class starting at 8.30am tomorrow morning.