Cast the Net Yourself: Hoi An Market, Basket Boat, Four Dishes

Four and a half hours, and the fishing is the part people remember.

It starts at the local market, where the guide's job is translation as much as shopping: how to deal with the sellers, what each ingredient is for, why one bunch of herbs is better than the one beside it.

Then the waterways. A bamboo basket boat, round and paddled rather than rowed, through the coconut palms, and two kinds of fishing: the purple crabs in the canal, and a traditional throwing net, which is harder than it looks and is the reason the photographs from this tour are usually of somebody laughing.

The class covers four Vietnamese dishes taught by the chef, and then four more arrive prepared: morning glory, a soup, steamed rice and a dessert. So the meal is eight things, not four.

Morning departures run 8:30 to 13:00 and afternoons 14:30 to 19:00, both in small groups of one class at a time.

Up to twelve people, in English or Vietnamese, with bottled water, all tickets and fees, and an air-conditioned vehicle. Vegetarian and other dietary requirements are catered for.