Day 6 – 08.10.2016
Instead of the normal hotel breakfast I decided to have some local bho soup instead. We went to a local stall and had some delicious soup surrounded by the locals.
After breakfast we headed towards our next destination – Hoi An. We stopped at a lovely little resort to visit the bathroom – or what the Vietnamese call the „happy room“. This was located straight at the beach and the views here were incredible, unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera with me here. On the beach there was a teambuilding exercise going on and the participants seemed like they were really enjoying it in their group colours and dance music...
We headed onwards and were able to have another good look from the mountainside of the bay and the ajoining beach stretch.
We drove on a little while longer and reached the tip of the mountain from where you can see both sides of the mountain and the cities that stretch underneath it.
Here army bases have been set up over time. The first watch tower was built by an emperor.
The others were set up by the americans eager to control this passage.
I must say, the view from here is spectacular!
This pass is the main way for many transports avoiding the more pricey tunnels. Which is why you see many animal transports on this street.
As we got closer to Hoi An, we passed a bridge from which we could see the dragon bridge. On the right side of the picture you can just see the outlines of a dragon head. Quite cool.
We finally arrived at our hotel. Beautiful!
We left our luggage at the hotel and set off for a quick walking tour of Hoi An. Our first stop this old Japanese bridge. I houses a temple and is said to look stunning at night. I will see whether I can add a little photo of it later.
Hoi An has several buildings that have French characteristics. All slightly run down, but still with quite a bit of charme. It is also quite nice, as Hoi An is much slower and less hectic than the other cities we have been to so far.
We were glad to stop for lunch as it was quite hot and humid and the fans and cool drink were very much sought after. I just had a couple of spring rolls and a bowl of noodles with pork.
After lunch we continued our walking tour and everywhere there were lanterns hanging around. Hoi An is said to be the city of lanterns. I wonder how this will look like at night.
Next stop was a temple in which they worship a commander of the army that has Chinese roots.
The red spirals are insense spirals that can burn for up to 3 months! Inside there are several Chinese inscriptions from ancestors of the commander.
Here a close up of how offerings in their temples look like.
We then stopped by a very old house of Hoi An. The owner family used to have Chinese roots, but are now „completely Vietnamese“!
After visiting the old house we went ahead and did someting else that Hoi An is famous for – it’s tailors. In no more than 24 hours they manage to produce anything from leather handbags, shoes, jewellery and custom made clothing. This meant that we had to visit all these stores as quickly as possible, get our orders in and leave the tailors to produce the goods. If you wanted something specific you would go to the different shops with an image on your phone or printed out or someting like that, and they would copy the image for you – no problem. I had a couple ideas for jewellery ( a necklace with „wanderlust“), clothing (a winter jacket, and two dresses) and then chose to quickly just check out the shoe shop...
The process at the clothing tailors was interesting. You would come in with the design you had in mind, try to find the materials that would match this idea, talk about any other additions to the design you would like, get measured up and then they would set everything in motion. The process of deciding upon materials and cuts was quite difficult though since Yalys, (the place where I got my clothing done) has so many materials on stock. It was fun though and the idea of having clothing that is specifically made for your body is really cool. The clothing that is made is of high end quality and many men come here to get suits sewn, and women for gala or wedding dresses. They can do anything though really. From leather jackets, to normal t-shirts, shorts and trousers to even scrubs and chef jackets (as we had two of our fellow travellers do...)
After the shopping frenzy, I had signed up for a little cooking course. We arrived at the green mango, which has been recommended by Gordon Ramsey who visited the Green Mango Restaurant during his trip through Vietnam. The course started right away with preparing our vegetables for our fresh spring rolls, the garnish for our soup and for the pickeling process.
This was our menu:
Fresh vegetable rolls
Crunchy vegetable noodles wrapped around rice paper, served with chili lime vinaigrette
Banana blossom salad with chicken
Shredded chicken infused rau ram, banana blossom, fresh herbs and chili lime vinaigrette
Pho bo
Famous beef pho, fresh rice noodles in a cinnamon star anise broth
Bun Ca Tim Tron
Wok tossed lemongrass marinated eggplant with turmeric leaves and rice-paddies, peanut sesame crust, shallot chips, rice noodles, fresh herbs and chili lime fish sauce. Served with home made papaya carrot pickle.
Mango Sticky Rice
Warmed mango sticky rice served with mango puree and Malibu coconut sauce.
Preparing the mango sticky rice.
Preparing the mango puree and the chili lime vinaigrette with fish sauce.
How to roll a fresh spring roll: It should be rolled tightly, using the fingers to aid the process and then be cut into individual pieces.
The end result of the banana blossom salad with chicken. (Artishokes can be used if banana blossoms cannot be acquired.)
Next up – forming the perfect little heaps of sticky rice.
The end result oft he Bun Ca Tim Tron – the lemongrass marinated eggplant with tumeric leaves.
Distributing the Pho Bo (the beef noodle soup). The thin beef slices are added rare to this mixture, and only when the broth hits the beef it is cooked – a little bit like fondue.
Successful photo with the chef!
After cooking our food we got to eat it too! It was just absolutely delicious! We were also very lucky to immediately receive the recipes of all dishes straight after the cooking course had ended.
After this hectic day we headed back to the hotel, thoroughly enjoying the lanterns that light up the streets and make for a very romantic atmosphere !
