The train ride from Dong Hoi to Hoi An is a beauty! For the first half of the trip we passed through typical rural villages and rice crops. For the second half of the trip, the train was the only artificial object between the lush green hills on our right and the picturesque ocean on our left. That is if you turn a blind eye to the piles of rubbish littering the train tracks.

The train line curved inland towards the end, and for the last part of the journey we had to pile into a taxi with a bunch of other backpackers destined for Hoi An. Our taxi driver, Dung, was a hilarious guy who showed us his scrap book which was filled with messages from all his other tourists. We asked him to drop us off at a cheap and humble hotel. The first, Thanh Binh 3, was a fancy hotel with a pool and everything. Not exactly humble... The second, Thanh Binh 2, was slightly less extravagant but still too pricey... The third, Thanh Binh 1, was more what we were after and we settled with a simple room. We hope Dung got some good commission from Thanh Binh! The best part about this hotel chain was that breakfast for all of them was served in Thanh Binh 3 and was scrumptious! The fresh fruit was never-ending!

Our hotel was located smack bang in the middle of the Old Town which is a Unesco World Heritage site. The Thu Bon River, which passes through the city has been used as a trading port since the 17th century. As such, the Old Town is riddled with architecture influenced by chinese, japanese and european designs and is very tourist friendly. Throughout our ramblings, we somehow managed to resist the 200 or more tailor shops hoping to make us a suit or dress, which is usually one of the main tourist draws.

We hired bikes and rode for 6 km out to Cua Dai Beach, for our first swim since leaving Australia. The feeling of diving under the salty, breaking waves was very relaxing. The temperature was perfect and the weather couldn't have been better. A cold northerly swept through in the arvo so we got back on our bikes and did a bit of exploring. Hoi An is obviously getting psyched for mass tourism as most of the land around the beach has been cleared for resorts. The ride back home was not as pleasant as Aidan's chain came off a couple of times, and he had to keep kicking the wheel back into alignment. The bike lady seemed surprised we were not planning on using her services again...

The highlight for Hoi An was the Red Bridge Cooking Class. After hearing great reviews, this course was the biggest draw card for us in Hoi An and we were not disappointed! Our morning started with a tour of the markets. We were able to try out different local fruits and were suffocated with alternative uses of vegetables for cooking. The Vietnamese even use sweet potato leaves as a replacement for bok choy! Afterwards, we hoped on a little boat and were taken to an island to start our cooking class. Our chef was great, with an incredibly dry sense of humour. Hopefully he didn't offend the vegetarians present... He showed us how to cook a selection of traditional dishes and we all got to have a go on our own. This included making rice paper rolls from scratch - the rice paper and all! We then spent the next two hours trying to eat it all. There was no need for dinner that night...

With our stomachs more than satisfied and our hair once again smelling of sea salt we left Hoi An for Kon Tum in the central highlands!