The little town of Hoi An was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site back in 1995, and we can totally see why - the place just oozes colonial and rustic charm. Not only that, it's a place to touch tastebuds you never knew existed - the restaurants here are sublime! It also a very cosmopolitan place to be.
As well as all the lovely people you see around...
[Hazel thinks she could be 'Yoda' in Celebrity Look-ee-Like-ee; Pete isn't so sure. Either way, wise looking she is!]
...there are lanterns everywhere...
...which combine to make the whole town look...
...atmospheric and beautiful.
The photo below shows a Meeting House that has been kept in its original state. The coils you can see hanging from the ceiling are incense, each carrying a yellow tag with well-wishing messages.
On Friday we had one of the best meals of our trip. It was a Five Course extravaganza at Cafe Des Amis. It is renowned for the owner/chef creating a different menu every night (a set menu for fish and a set menu for meat - we chose one of each!)
Put it this way - the sentence 'oooh, try this!' was repeated several times during the evening!
The Russian folk music topped it off!
For much of our time here we spent it flitting between many of the 300-odd tailors they have in town. We kept saying to each other, 'if I've got this, I might as well get that to go with it', the upshot being we were measured so many times we were told body measurements we never knew we had!
It was raining slightly when we arrived and got progressively worse. On New Year's Eve the weather really kicked into gear with a torrential downpour, flooding many of the streets close to the river.
During the day we upgraded from your basic One-Size-Fits-All-And-Rips-Instantaneously-But-For-A-Very-Nice-Price-And-Does-The-Job-So-Long-As-You-Don't-Take-It-Off Poncho (a very similar quality to that of an Asda value shopping bag).
Directly to Poncho #3: I-Know-I-Look-Stupid-But-I-Don't-Care-This-One-Has-Four-Berths-And-An-Awning-Dontcha-Know:
At least some people enjoyed the rain. All together now:
'Bom, bom bom - ayee aye!':
[Hazel kissed Pete on New Year's Eve and look what happened!]
Our carefully planned meal to see us into the New Year was almost washed out... almost, but not quite:
Namaste!
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2 comments:
Yay - you made it to one of my favourite places in South-East Asia :) Hope you found it as wonderful as we did - totally magical.
Mum and I are wetting ourselves laughing at you in v. unglamourous poncho's!!!
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