Lantern Making class with Ms. My in Local's Home

Booked this tour to see something different as we were spending five days in Hoi An. Tour ended up just being the two of us as a large family group cancelled due to illness. I was impressed that it still ran. Our guide Milk was one of the best guides we have ever had. He was personable, possessed a wealth of information and was considerate and flexible. His English was excellent. The tour started at a marble shop and I was a bit concerned that it would turn into a forced shopping tour but I needn’t have worried. Once we got this “compulsory” stop out of the way the real tour starts. We visited the Marble Mountains which we knew nothing about. Inside the caves and caverns are temples with large carved Buddhas. Milk told us the history of the caves including their use during the Vietnam war. He strikes a good balance of giving you information and then letting you enjoy the sights. We were very impressed with the beauty of the temples and the use of the natural formation of the landscape. Next we visited Monkey Mountain. We did see a large number of monkeys on the drive up at a nice safe distance. Monkey Mountain has a statue of a large Buddha and beautiful bonsai gardens. We were there just on dark and the view of Danang was spectacular. It is a lot larger than we thought and probably well worth exploring on its own. We then moved on to our “light” dinner. It was a delicious noodle dish which was very filling. We finished this and then they brought out crispy pancake which you wrap in rice paper with herbs. Though already full we were making decent headway on this until they brought out the second one.I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant as the food was very good. As we were ahead of schedule and the Dragon Bridge only does its thing at 9pm [Sat and Sun only] Milk took us to the night markets. He waited at the entrance and gave us the opportunity to look around. The market was a local one not tourist with lots of fresh and cooked foods available. They were cooking lobster over charcoal and it looked incredible and was very cheap by our standards, 200,000dong for a medium lobster. We then moved on a good viewing spot of the Dragon Bridge. Couldn’t believe how popular it is with both locals and tourists. The dragon breathes fire in bursts for a while and then sprays water. Whole performance takes about 15 minutes. You don’t want to be in the path of the water as Milk believes it is drawn from the river which is not the cleanest. It is a bit touristy but I enjoyed it.. Overall this is one of the best tours we have done and I would like to thank Milk and his driver for making our evening so enjoyable. Well done Hoian Eco Coconut Tours.