Turns out that every hour in Hoi An is happy hour. It is also free to look, no pressure to buy anything and no hassle (as long as you don't take them telling you all these things constantly as hassling).
It is also a very pretty little town with a wonderful night market and an amazing atmosphere about it. It is a local tradition to light a candle and float it down the river in a lotus flower as it brings good luck (and more happy hours!).
The first thing we managed to do was get dragged into a shoe shop by some of these no hassle shop keepers. It was brilliant though. They had no shoes we liked, so we decided to get some custom made leather ones! I got some flip flops and some smart brown shoes and Gill got some sandals and boots. It was great because we could chose bits from one and combine it with bits from another, and then select the leather colour and feel you liked best. Then they would tweak them until they fitted perfectly. And all for significantly less than UK prices! Brilliant.
With our new new shoes sorted out, we went so seem some of Hoi An. We went to a place called My Son which was a very old temple with buildings nearly 1600 years old. The whole place was nearly whole until America decided to bomb the living daylights out of this part of Vietnam in 1969 so many of the buildings were destroyed after surviving for such a long time. We decided to go for a sunrise tour though and it was an amazing time to visit. There were about 10 other people in the whole place and as the sun rose, the golden glow hit off the red brick buildings and it looked stunning.
Another thing we did in Hoi An was went on a Vietnamese cooking course. We first cycled out to a farm and met this amazing couple. They didn't speak a word of English but he was 85 and she was 80 and they have been married 60 years. He was out hoeing the field when we met and he let us help out with hoeing and watering! It was amazing and genuinely felt like we were in the real Vietnam. We carried on going and got to the allotments where the herbs and veg was growing that we needed to make our food with. Next stop was the market. 1 kg of fresh saffron or lemongrass costs 30p. Tescos and sainsburys have us bent over a barrel with their prices!!
So we started off by cooking some fried pork spring rolls and then made some sweet and sour pork and veg and a shrimp and mango salad. Then, we best bit, we got to eat it with rice and some fried 'morning glory' (a bit like spinach). It was all delicious!
Our next stop is Nha Trang which is a 12 hour sleeper bus away.
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