Wine Bars in the Rain

It was still raining this morning so Jo, Alex and I went to the excellent Morning Glory cooking school with Ms Vy, who's made an amazingly-successful career out of her famous restaurant serving traditional Vietnamese food.

The day began with a wet journey to the local market to learn about traditional fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, meat and fish. Then we cooked a selection of local food such as cabbage soup, rice paper rolls, Hoi An pancake and BBQ chicken with mango salad, all served with rice and, of course, my favourite vegetable - Morning Glory.

Photos: I made this!

After the class, it was still raining so we ended up in the White Marble wine bar again and spent the afternoon drinking lychee martinis and excellent New Zealand wine.

Photo: Jay, Alex and me drinking cocktails in the rain

Not needing dinner after the excellent cooking class, we just kept drinking; finally ending up back at the hotel playing pool and drinking my Beer Laos. Off to Ho Chi Minh tomorrow.

Sidebar: As soon as it starts raining in Hoi An, women mysteriously appear to sell cheap plastic raincoats for 1USD (because, after a while, everything is 1USD). Alex bought one and, after a whole day of wear of tear, this was the result...

Photos: Raincoats were harmed during the shooting of these photographs. Alcohol was also involved.