Today was a rainy day. There were a couple of optional excursions on offer in the morning, but Robin decided that we’d all be too miserable in the rain, so we had a lazy morning before heading into the regularly scheduled program.

We went to a veggie farm and cooking school. It was great!

With some time to spare this morning, I went for a walk after breakfast. Even though it was Sunday morning, the traffic was brisk. You took your life in your hands every time you crossed the road.

Lots of lane ways.

Then before I knew it, we were off to the farm! We sat at a table for a delicious ‘welcome drink’ and John said, “Hey, look what’s under the tabletop.”

How lovely.

We were given farmers shirts to put on over our clothes, along with the Vietnamese hats, then out into the field we went!

No space is wasted. Here, they’ve mixed in a flower crop- gladioli- with lettuce.

Whenever a Vietnamese family has a baby, the government gives 100square metres of ground. Half of the population are farmers, so this is very important to them. The trouble is, the pieces of land are scattered all around. So this series of garden beds are owned by many different families, all looking after their own plots of land.

These plots are on the literal outskirts of Hoi An.
We walked along while our farmer picked handfuls of different herbs and passed them along so we could smell them.

This is what a peanut crop looks like!

Here’s me, hoeing the ground so that our farmer could plant some spinach plants. It’s me, I promise.

If you zoom in, you’ll be able to see the yoke that the buckets are suspended from.

After this, it was time for the cooking class. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to doing this, probably because I never really enjoyed all the cooking classes I ran during my thermomix days.
But it was a lot of fun.

There I am, 6th from the left, ready to start making my savoury pancake.
The scariest thing about it was that we had to flip them over after a couple of minutes. Not with a spatula, like regular people do. Oh no… we had to flip it up in the air from the pan and then catch it.

I was so sure I wouldn’t be able to do it. But I was wrong.

LOOK AT THIS!

Sometimes I surprise myself.

Also, I don’t think I’ve ever had a more flattering photo of myself.

Then it was back down the path to the buggies waiting to take us to either the hotel or to the Old Town to shop.

Without an exception, the men went back to the hotel. The women all went shopping.
It was raining, so I had my Antarctica rain jacket on. Robin went with us to the markets, and kindly took me to the shop where I wanted to go.

Yes, I decided that I couldn’t live without that beautiful embroidered artwork of the Hoi A street. It’s coming home to The Best House in Melbourne.

After that exercise, there was no way I was buying anything else. I wandered around alone, just looking, until I bumped into Maree and Tina from our group.

Look! The terminators have arrived… and they look fabulous!

We were in a clothes shop and Tina wanted to buy her adult son a t- shirt. She noticed a young couple in the shop and asked the man if he’d mind trying on the T-shirt, as he was around the same size as her son. He agreed.
once he had it on, Tina asks, “Do you mind if I hug you, just to see if it feels right ?”

His girlfriend thought that was hilarious. Him? Not so much…

We headed in here for a couple of G&Ts while it rained.

I felt sorry for this lady, still making her sweet potato fritters in the pouring rain.

I bought another souvenir on the way back to the hotel. Coffee that has been ground from coffee beans shat from weasels. Can’t wait to spring this one on Georgia!

Before dinner, we went to a dance/acrobatic show called the Bamboo Circus. The core strength of these acrobats has to be seen to be believed.

We have a big day tomorrow, so it’ll be an early start. We leave magical Hoi An and we’re heading further north.

I can see myself coming back here one day. It’s a lovely place.

Dad Joke of the day:

The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.