Our ship is now in Da Nang in central Vietnam. Here we spent a lovely day at The Old Town of Hoi An, a World Heritage site, learning how silk is made.

Known for their voracious appetites, silkworms feed only on leaves from the Mulberry tree. When they are 18 days old, the larger silkworms are moved to racks to give them sufficient room to keep growing. A further 18 days pass and the silkworms are fully grown and turn yellow.

They are then moved onto special bamboo racks to spin their cocoons.

Silkworms release a few rings of raw silk to cover their outsides and begin to form the shape of a cocoon. They work like this for 4 consecutive days wrapping around themselves forming cocoons. 

Silk thread is a liquid, viscous and transparent protein fibre which is secreted from the salivary glands of the silkworm. When it is exposed to the air, the liquid hardens and forms silk threads.

Where we were, they use the silk to create hand-embroidered pictures. We were not allowed to take any photos, but the pictures are breathtakingly beautiful and looked like works of art, which they are!