Wedding anniversary weekend in beautiful Hoi An

Last weekend it was our 30th wedding anniversary and to celebrate we decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend away. We flew to Da Nang in central Vietnam and then took a taxi the remaining 30km to the ancient town of Hoi An, another UNESCO World Heritage site.

 We arrived at our hotel The Hoi An Silk Marina and Spa where they kindly upgraded us to one of their Villa suites which had it's own jaccuzi and little garden and had lovely view of the Thu Bon river and the nearby hills

 The hotel was perfectly situated on a quiet street but within easy walking distance of the main town  which we set out to explore. 

The daytime temperature was between 35-38c so we walked very slowly, that meant we had time to notice the pretty streets and houses. Hoi An is a pretty town and is car free in the centre, but you still need to watch out as there are plenty of bikes and rickshaws on the streets.   

 The city's major site is the Japanese Covered Bridge, legend states that it was built after a series of earthquakes in Japan, a mythical monster was blamed for causing these. The monster apparently had its head in India, tail in Japan and heart in Hoi An so the bridge was built and it's stone piles drove a metaphorical sword through the monster's heart and presumably stopped the earthquakes!  

Inside the bridge is a stone statue of a dog, another of two monkeys and a small temple

and outside there was an elderly lady selling a selection of toys and souvenirs

The streets were busy with hawkers selling all sorts of things; fruit, snacks, souvenirs and toys. Some hawkers sold from their bicycles

some displayed their goods on the pavement 

some used push carts

and many had baskets suspended from a pole and carried on the shoulder

  In the evening the town centre looked even more attractive as the lanterns dangling from the shop facades light up. 

This lady was preparing and selling her food from her small boat

Hoi An is also famous for it's numerous tailors who quickly make made to measure clothes, sometimes even overnight and knowing this I had brought along one of my favourite dresses now very old and almost threadbare, which I was hoping to get copied. So the following morning we crossed the bridge again and set off for a tailor that a friend had recommended (but I noticed was in the guide book as a well know tailors)

Crossing the bridge I noticed again how the local women generally cover their skin completely to avoid their skin darkening. In spite of the heat many even wear face masks, long sleeves, gloves and socks so not an inch of flesh is exposed.

 In Yaly tailors I was swiftly appointed Bella, who would be my assistant during the whole process. She gave me style books with different clothes options, showed me template dresses and blouses, carefully looked at my dress for copying and then measured me

She then guided me though choosing the material, there was a bewildering choice of silks and linens but after what I though was a pretty short time (although Papa T might not agree) the choosing was done and I had ordered 3 blouses, 1 skirt and a copy of my dress. I went away with an appointment for the next day for my 'first fitting' and realised that Bella was a rather good saleswoman as I only intended to get 1 dress!

 The rest of the day we spent exploring more of the town and its pretty temples and wooden fronted shop houses

and using the hotel bicycles we could travel a little further and came across the main market 

which sells everything one could every possibly need 

and the freshest looking fruit and veg you could ask for

 That evening we watched the sun set from our hotel top floor (only 4th) before heading out for a delicious supper at a nearby restaurant, Mango Mango

In many parts of Asia the motorbike or moped is the main transport option and a few times we had contemplated renting one but as I have an inherent fear of them we've never actually done it. Here in Hoi An the roads seemed quieter, reasonably flat and literally everyone, even elderly ladies were riding motorbikes so when Neil told me that he had rented a motorbike from the chap in the store next door whilst I was having my 'dress fitting' at the tailors I agreed to be his passenger

we put on our helmets and set off, very slowly at first but as confidence built we were soon out on the open road and discovering the lovely countryside around Hoi An

through villages

past fish farms, maybe they were prawn ponds!

 through Nipa palm plantations, the huge fronds are dried and used for thatching roofs and making baskets

 maybe next time I'll have go on my own instead of just posing on the bike!

We headed for the coast and stopped at a little place somewhere between Cui Dai and An Bang beach. At a tiny cafe we were welcomed and shown to a shady rest area overlooking the beach and Cham Islands. Here we enjoyed a tasty Banh Mi (a Vietnames baguette type sandwich) 

and watched this fisherman pulling in his nets in his 'basket boat'

Having spent a hot but very enjoyable few hours motoring around we safely returned the motor bike and headed out for our last evenings meal, on the way seeing another lovely sunset 

 The following morning there was time for one last bike ride this time over the small metal bridge to the nearby island of Cam Kim where I had another glimpse into the local way of life

this lovely chap was very happy for me to take his photo as he harvested the chillies

This old looking house seemed uninhabited

Coconut husks were laid out to dry on either side of this small temple

view across the rice paddy

Buffaloes keeping cool after their morning's work

There was also time for one last massage, at the equivalent of only $15 for a one hour full body massage both Papa T and I had been enjoying daily massages. When we said goodbye the two lovely young masseuses gave us both a little woven bag as a gift and waved us off, we had been good customers over the previous 4 days but we both agreed that all the Vietnamese people we had met on this trip had been so friendly, helpful and just delightful and we were leaving with many happy memories and of course I also had my new tailor made clothes to take home

Below is my anniversary card, I love the happy faces and wonder if we may soon start looking like this couple! 

England, family, friends, memories and a trip to lovely Lisbon

 I spent part of May and most of June in the UK, catching up with family and friends. The weather was pretty wonderful for the first couple of weeks and unusually the late May bank holiday weekend was hot and sunny.  

I took the opportunity to watch my son playing cricket for our local village team, it felt so quintessentially English

I also had the pleasure of meeting up with my 'soon to be' 18 year old god daughter in London. We were lucky to see this amazing floral display outside the National Museum, 27,000 fresh cut flowers were used to recreated a Dutch floral masterpiece.

A few days later it was my mother's 90th birthday, an occasion I definitely wanted to be back in the UK for and although she wasn't well enough to go out our family enjoyed celebrating quietly at home with her

My sister's and I spent many hours over the following few weeks clearing and sorting through the family home, prior to it being sold. It was hard work physically and emotionally but we had fun  reminiscing over photographs and family possessions we remembered from our childhood.

 Living now in Asia I was fascinated to find an album of photographs my father had taken whilst he was a young Naval Doctor aboard the Troopship Empire Orwell. The album dated 1952 states it left Southampton on 19th November and called at Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Pusan ( now called Busan in South Korea) and Kure (Hiroshima prefecture, Japan)

Below are the photos my father took in Singapore, most of which I could work out where they are, below the Singapore River and godowns

Raffles Hotel

The building below is now the Asian Civilisation Museum and Cavenagh Bridge

Taken looking across the Padang towards the Victoria Theatre ( now concert hall) and Memorial Hall, City Hall, Parliament House (now National Art Gallery) and the Singapore Cricket Club 

Commercial Square (now Raffles Place ) with Chartered Bank on left, Robinson's store on right 

The Fullerton building on the right

Chinatown has changed a bit but the method of hanging out the washing is still used today

As far as I know no kampongs (Malay word for village) like this still exist in Singapore, sadly

Whilst in the UK I was lucky enough to have time to catch up with some good friends, including some from the yard where I had kept my horse;  Flash, before we came to Singapore.  I had the pleasure of a enjoying a lovely long ride on him again, it was just wonderful to be riding in the cool fresh air and in open countryside again-a real tonic 

After three weeks Papa T joined me in the UK and together with BT and HT went up to Wembley for a long awaited event-seeing Coldplay. The concert was fabulous-my photos do not do it justice at all! 

We also took the opportunity to take a long weekend break to have time together as a family, just the four of us. We had planned this some months ago and wanted to go somewhere that none of us had been to before.This was quite a tough task as we all are fortunate enough to have travelled a fair bit but finally we picked Lisbon in Portugal and we were so pleased we had as it was delightful

Pretty tiled streets, trams, & tuk tuks, beautiful old buildings and lovely views

many of the houses are covered in tiles as well

The 'Elevador de Santa Justa', built at the turn of the 20th century, the architect was apprenticed to Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the similarity in style is immediately apparent 

with amazing views of the town and surrounding hills 

The Se, the city's cathedral built for the first bishop of Lisbon, the English crusader Gilbert of Hastings, a funny coincidence as Hastings is a nearby seaside town to our UK home

Castelo de Sao Jorge

We took the train to the nearby seaside town of Caiscais, a pretty place. There was a group of musicians and dancers in a small square

 We enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch overlooking the bay

and then wandered around the streets 

our trip to Lisbon coincided with the Euro football 2016 and Papa T & HT were keen to watch some of the games, in Caiscais they found the match (I forget which) being shown at O'Neill's, possibly the prettiest Irish bar I've seen

 Back in Lisbon that evening again the boys watched the next football match, BT and I went off exploring and came across this shop devoted to the sale of sardines, one of Portugal's major exports of course, who would have thought there were so many different varieties?

Many of the Lisbon streets are very steep and some have their own little funiculars like this one

 and as the light faded the narrow streets filled with locals chatting and eating together, what a lovely place to live

We returned to the UK for a few more days of catching up with family and friends and then the day before we had to return to Singapore it was the Referendum. We were able to cast our vote at our local polling station and like many stayed up late to see the result which appeared at 1am to be for the UK to remain in the EU. We woke up to the surprising result that the majority had voted for the UK to leave the EU.  I went to to the airport feeling like we were leaving the UK at a momentous time, time will tell what the effect of this vote will be.