Much to the annoyance of my travel buddies, I actually slept pretty well on the overnight sleeper train and felt pretty perky by 5am.
Our taxi picked us up from the train station at 6am and 40 minutes later, we had arrived at the lovely Terracotta Homestay where we were greeted by Lee and her adorable children.
As the girls didn’t sleep so well on the train, they had a nap in the room while I sat in the garden catching up with Bridget Jones.
We met the wonderful Yeter and walked into town together, had lunch at a vegan restaurant and walked around the Old Town which was full of temples and cute shops selling art and souvenirs.
After a walk around, we headed back to the homestay to chill and devoured delicious, homemade Vietnamese pancakes for dinner.
Friday 26th August
At 8am, we were picked up and taken to the local food market to buy some vegetables for our Vietnamese cooking class.
We had the opportunity to join some local fisherman and attempt to catch some fish using a fishing net.
Catch of the day 😉
Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful.
The confusion on my face says it all.
Undeterred from our failures as fisherwomen, we donned some traditional Vietnamese headwear and headed towards our class in a bucket boat.
TICK THAT BAD BOY OFF THE BUCKET LIST 😉
#JK #DIDNTEVENKNOWTHATBUCKETBOATSWEREATHING
PUPPY!
Before class, we played a game where we were blindfolded and had to hit a clay pot.
Not what I expected to be doing when I woke up that morning but a right LOL, nevertheless.
Our cooking class was awesome and we looked incredible.
As you can see, I am soaking up the chef’s wise words so that I can recreate all these dishes at home with ease.
We made rice rolls, crispy pancakes, papaya salad and claypot pork – SO GOOD!
Once we had stuffed our faces, we were taken back to the homestay where we chilled for a few hours before heading to the bizarre and unintentionally hilarious Water Puppet Show.
Ballin’ in the front row.
After the show, we walked into Old Town for dinner at a lovely restaurant but unfortunately I don’t remember what it was called. The food was great, though. (Useful info for you, I’m sure).
#bestbloggeraward
After dinner, we met Keith and Yeter for a few bevvies on a boat.
Saturday 27th August
Having had many early starts recently, the girls and I treated ourselves to a lie-in before spending the day at the gorgeous An Bang Beach.
We got to the airport in the evening to find that our flight to Hanoi had been delayed by 2 hours but at least I learnt something new from my Burger King packaging.
By around 2am, we arrived at Asia Backpacker in Hanoi, exhausted and ready for bed.
As we entered our narrow dorm room, we were ecstatic to be greeted by wafts of fast food.
DELICIOUSOUSOUS.
See you soon for updates from Hanoi 😉
xxx
Woah, your photos look so vibrant! And that tiny pufferfish is so cute haha, wish I had the time to travel to Hoi An when I was in Vietnam 😭
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Hey Karmen, thank you! That pufferfish was super cute 😉 Where in Vietnam did you visit? There’s always next time! xx
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Only got to visit Ho Chi Minh, but that’s true, definitely want to go back sometime soon! Your post is giving me serious travel envy haha xx
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What did you think of Ho Chi Minh? Did you stay there for long? Haha, what are you doing at the moment? 🙂
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It was good, but I only had 5 days so, not that much time to visit other places in Vietnam aha. I would have loved to see a bit more outside the city, did a day trip to the Mekong Delta which was amazing! I’m finishing my degree at the moment – final year eee! Are you still travelling? 😮
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Ho Chi Minh is a good place to start though 🙂 I wasn’t a big fan of the Mekong Delta tour as it our one just felt like they were taking us to lots of different spots to sell us stuff. What did your tour involve?
Ooh that’s cool, what are you studying? I wish I was still travelling but my money ran out so I’m back in Hong Kong searching for work 😉
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Ahh, the tour was pretty much the same for us too! But I liked it because it was nice to get out of the city and I got some great photos from the paddle boats ahah.
Studying Psychology! Ah, that’s not too bad tbh, you’re in HK, it’s way better than Nottingham! What sort of work are you looking for?
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Yeah, that’s fair enough!
Ooh, nice. I originally applied to study psychology but changed to sociology. Are you enjoying it? How is Nottingham? I’ve never been but did consider checking out the uni there. I teach English 🙂
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Oo, yeah, I saw on your ‘about’ page aha, how come you changed? I enjoy it, but I don’t think I’ll end up using much of my degree after, I thought I wanted to go into research, but had a change of heart 😅 Nottingham is quiet! But not too bad for students I suppose, I just want to go abroad again ahaa, but I don’t think I’ll be good at teaching english lol.
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I think I just realised that psychology was much more science and research based whereas I was much more interested in the more social side of things. Plus, I enjoyed sociology more at school so it just made sense 😉
Ah ok, what would you like to do instead? Any idea? I thought that Nottingham would be quite lively and student-based seeing as it has 2 universities? :p
Where are you from? Haha, I never thought that I’d get into teaching when I was younger but it can be pretty fun!
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Ahh, I see! Not sure at the moment, would like to go into media/marketing, something that lets you be a little more creative 😊 and yeah, it’s got good student nights at clubs/bars, but I think from being abroad in HK for a year, you get used to the city being busy 24hrs! :’)
I’m from Leeds, but my family are Chinese-Vietnamese! Oo, yeah, younger children can be pretty cute!
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That’s true, it’s part of the reason why I love HK so much. There’s always something going on. Oh nice, 2 of my really good friends went to uni at Leeds. It’s a great city! 🙂
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Yeah, it’s definitely an up-and-coming sort of place, but I’d still rather be abroad ahah. Was it hard to move to HK and start working?
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Not at all. I’m really lucky because most of my relatives live here so I stayed with my auntie for the first few months and got a teaching job within the first few weeks here. It’s really easy to get a teaching job if you’re a native speaker with a degree 🙂
You thinking of working in HK?
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Ohh! Yeah, I’d love to work in HK, but I don’t have family there and not sure if I’d be a good teacher haha :’) something to work towards I suppose!
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Wow! I go here in a few weeks and I cannot wait!!! looks amazing! xx
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Hoi An is great, very chilled and the beach is beaut! Have fun 🙂 xx
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