After another lovely breakfast with a view, we started with a drive over the Hai Van (sea cloud) Pass to Hoi An past the Truong Son mountains.
We then drove down to the UNESCO-awarded fishing port of Loc An, accompanied by stunning panoramas of mountains, islands and ocean. We stopped in a café to try salted coffee on ice. This area produces a lot of oysters and there were oyster farms along the way and at our stop-off point.
After a while, we saw Da Nang emerge in the distance and drove past the construction site of a planned five star luxury resort with golf course. As we crossed the river, we saw the city centre and a distant view of the famous yellow dragon bridge. This is lit up at night and breathes fire and water!! The beach by Da Nang is 30km long! It looked like an interesting place to visit.
Our next stop off was at a marble village where many of the carved Buddhas are made. The scale and the range of colours of the statues was amazing.
Further along the route we explored Tra Que Herb Village. This is in a quaint area of lush fertile ground served by the Thu Bon River Delta where over 150 farmers tend to their vegetable patches. We learn about the natural growing methods using local algae, garlic water or chilli water instead of pesticides.
After a tour of the farm and the chance to taste some of the produce, we had a foot soak in a solution made with garden herbs. We also had a foot, head and shoulder massage. It was very relaxing so we were very chilled in time for lunch.
The lunch menu started with Tam Huu Hoi An (three friends). This is pork, prawn and herbs tied together with a length of spring onion and dipped in a dipping sauce. It is the best thing we’ve tasted since we got here. This was followed by crispy spring rolls. We then tasted Hoi An style pancakes. For these we took a layer of rice paper, laid the filled pancake on the top, stuffed it with herbs and cucumber and rolled it using our chopsticks before dipping it in sauce. We rounded this off with some dessert rolls dipped in chocolate. Everybody was extremely welcoming and the atmosphere and location was fantastic. The farmer who showed us around the plot was called Xuan, which means ‘spring season’. 
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We continued on to our hotel, which we needed to access by 4 o’clock as after that time there is no vehicular access. Later on we had a walking tour of Hoi An to orientate us towards the incredible architecture of buildings like the Japanese Bridge and the Chinese Meeting Hall.
The old town in Hoi An is renowned for its beautifully crafted hand-made silk lanterns which light up the city after dark. Many of these were on display in the shops and on many boats along the river. It was the perfect time of day to do this walk because the sun was just beginning to set and the sky was beautiful. We were lucky to visit the biggest tailors in Hoi An. This was fascinating because we got a behind the scenes peep. We were able to speak to a seamstress, witness some fittings and see all the beautiful swathes of fabrics and cottons on display.
Thin arranged for us to taste some local specialities in the restaurant which we will revisit tomorrow for our cookery lesson. The main distinction between this and previous meals was that the noodles were much thicker. These are typical of the region.
After dinner, Dave, Jayne, Donna and I came back to the hotel to meet the organiser of our hot stone massages booked earlier. Despite the fact that today had primarily being a travel day, we had fitted so many activities in that the massage was the perfect relaxing ending to the day.
Dave here: I have to make a note that I don’t think I have ever really had a massage before , so to have 2 in one day is quite something. The 2nd one was 90 minutes long and went by in a flash. One of my main memories is the “OK Sir” checks of my masseuse every so often.