Home from Phuket, we put out a facebook message to see who was still around in KL as everyone was on holiday or had gone home. One of the best things about living where we do is that wherever you go and if ever you're bored, if you want to you can always bump into somebody you know. So many times we finish work and go for dinner and 1 after the next of our friends walk past and join on until in the end we have a huge party of us enjoying Malaysian life. It really is so nice.

So Sam, Mike and his friend were around so we headed off in search of that christmassy feeling and wound up at The Bulldog, a British pub round the corner in Sri Hartamas which served us up a real christmas dinner, under a christmas tree with crackers, paper hats, fairy lights...the full shabang! It was brilliant! I had been watching Home Alone, had a youtube log fires, fairy lights and christmas tunes on all day and not quite matched the UK, but The Bulldog definitely got us a little closer to feeling christmassy. After dinner, we headed to The Backyard where a band were playing 'Dad rock' which went down well with all of us as we had a great night of dancing and feeling christmassy. We realised we were leaving at 6am the following morning, so hurried home to throw a load of clothes into a suitcase, get some shut eye and get up on time for our flight.

The flight was great, really clear and beautiful weather! We touched down and went to get a taxi in the lovely cool weather (26 degrees!). Upon asking the price, we were told it would be 500,000 dong! This turned out to be 15 pound so in we hopped and headed to our hotel by Cua Dai beach. When we arrived, the waves were crazy, the rain was falling and the hotel was deserted and looked, terrible! We took our bags upstairs and headed out to explore.

We strolled down to the beach which we had been promised was phenomenal, only to find it had closed the year before due to it being unsafe and a little wild, bummer! Back to the hotel next door, we went and had some warm drinks as, as ridiculous as this sounds, we were freezing! We headed to bed unsure about Vietnam, just knowing that everybody we had met seemed really nice.

Up bright and early, we went to get some breakfast in the hotel which to be fair was really delicious! After breakfast, we hired bikes and cycled into the ancient town of Hoi An down the main road, keeping an eye out for a potential hotel swap (which we found and organised for later that day).

At this point, I feel I should mention Vietnamese traffic...wow! It is absolutely crazy. There are whole families on motorbikes (much like in Thailand) but not only families, everything you could imagine seemed to go past strapped onto a motorbike including about 400 empty bottles of water with a woman's head (the driver) just about poking out the middle, 3 huge pigs in baskets, 7 geese, fish...all kinds. Everyone honks constantly but not aggressively, as a warning when they pass by you. Every-single-person beeps about 10 times as they pass leading to crazy, loud and stupidly busy streets. The roundabouts/brace-your-selfs are a sight to behold, there is nothing round about them, they have no central island and everyone just heads into the middle simultaneously and beeps to tell you there are coming through. Madness! It's difficult enough trying to cross the road on foot but when trying to negotiate your way to the old town on push bikes, it was really funny.

So, as I say we cycled down the main road, past the locals worked side-by-side with buffalos in the paddy fields to the ancient town which is absolutely beautiful. We hopped off our bikes and ducked into a really pretty restaurant called the Rice drum for our first experience of the delicious Vietnamese cuisine. Specialities include Pho (noodle broth, delicious) Bun, White Rose, Fresh Spring Rolls, Lao and many more all of which were delicious, so much so that we booked onto a cooking course the following day.

Upon arrival, we met our fellow aspiring chefs, a German couple who were really friendly and on a break from university. We were given a Vietnamese hat and a wicker basket and taken to the markets to buy what we would be cooking on the course. It was amazing. So much fun walking through the markets, first the fish market which was a complete assault on the senses, bustling, smelly, soggy and full of every kind of fish and sea creature, many still alive to choose from. We continued through to the vegetable and fruit markets where our guides let us try lots of different types of new fruit and veg including (the only nice one) Jackfruit. We bought mangoes, chillis, spring onion, garlic, lemongrass, beansprouts and lettuce.

Everywhere you look in Vietnam, there are women. The markets were full of women selling as their husbands were fishing or at home drinking with their friends (apparently). Even the canoes were rowed by really old ladies with big smiles and no teeth!

Anyway, through to the meat market where we saw all kinds of animals being butchered (again by ladies), through to pick up some spices from the spice market where we switched our Vietnamese hat and basket for a chefs hat and pinny. Excited!

Here is what we learned to make:

Shrimp and Pork Fresh Spring Rolls

Hoi An Rice Pancakes

BBQ'd Pork Chilli in Banana Leaf

Banana Run Pancakes

So fun to learn and delicious to eat!

After the cooking course was finished, we headed out to play pool with Florian and Pete, 2 friends from KL who had been traveling around Vietnam whilst we'd been taking in the sights of Phuket. It was really nice to catch up with them, play some pool and drink some larue (local beer), some Bia Hoi (Home brew) and try out some of the food courts of AMAZING food with them.

We booked to have christmas dinner with them in Cargo bar and so Christmas Eve was a day of pottering around the gorgeous ancient town with it's Japanese and Chinese influences, it's quirky and higgledy-piggledy streets and buildings and it's beautful bridges. The markets were crazy as I've already said, but there were also tailors and shoe makers everywhere. The sellers charm you into their shops, force you to sit down and leaf through catalogue after catalogue of clothes which you can order to be made for you. Literally, anything you want. I had be told about this as a highlight and had gone armed with photographs. I had chosen materials and patterns for all the items and wanted expecting it to be really cheap and when they told me how much it was I couldn't believe it! I had gone to one of the more expensive tailors however, I asked for a lace skirt and it came to 40 pounds! How embarrasing, I had to tell her it was much more than I thought and leave - never to order anything from Hoi An again! Now in hindsight I can see that if you wanted a special dress or suit made for example, it would be great but for casual clothes...stick to Primark!

Christmas Eve came and we headed down to the riverside where old ladies and children were selling candles in coloured paper packages which you sent floating down the river and made a wish. This is a beautiful sight which happens every night in Hoi An although I dread to think where all the paper packages end up! Across the river and to the very end of the 'party strip' to a bar with beer pong tables, lovely cakes, pool tables and a DJ and lots of people in christmas hats. We started the night as a 4 being silly and playing games and within an hour or so had recruited about 30 people into our group which led to a fab night of dancing, games and stupid photographs. It was a great night.

*As a side note, most of the people we met were teachers and one of them uploaded the photos to her facebook and turns out my friend form Abu Dhabi works with them all...small world!**

Christmas day involved waking up, pottering some more after breakfast before heading to Cargo bar for Christmas dinner with friends and a view. We headed home to skype our families and lazed in bed watching films as you are meant to on christmas day, before (which is definitely the first time we have ever done this) ordering a takeaway curry for tea!

Much of our time was taken up pottering around in Hoi An. It was really beautiful with lots to see and many little shops and restaurants to snack in. We both really loved it as the people are so friendly and the food so yum, all you want to do at christmas is potter and relax and although it was still 26 degrees, it felt quite chilly so we could wrap up a bit just like real christmas. Obviously it wasn't the same as being at home but it was still a fabulous experience.

In the evenings, as I've already mentioned, the town was lit up by the candles floating down the river but also by coloured silk lanterns hanging absolutely everywhere. It really is an absolutely beautiful place and such and amazing sight to see. It's too hard to explain and the photos don't do it the justice it deserves so you'll just have to go some time.

Our final day, we hired bikes again and cycled to a different beach. This was a nicer beach than Cua Dai as the tide was marginally less crazy but it was still unsafe to go in the sea which meant that the cycle was better than the actual beach.

Vietnam is an amazing place. Wherever you look you know you are in Vietnam, from the people working in paddy fields, to the buffaloes roaming around, to the over-filled motorbikes, to the women in beautiful hats, the silk lanterns and the ladies carrying and forcing you to buy fruit (namely chom choms [rambutans]) from baskets hanging from a pole balanced over their shoulder. The food (as I keep mentioning) is delicious and most of all the people are so welcoming and lovely, so much so that the girls on the lobby of our hotel bought me a scarf to say goodbye! I cannot say enough good things about our time in Vietnam and I just hope to go back sometime and explore the rest.