The loudspeaker starting blaring propaganda messages at 8am followed by over an hour of music and singing. Now this is not something you choose to listen to; this is something you are forced to listen to. Various messages came on several times during the day. Our hostess said they were reminding people to pay their taxes. Buzz and I joked that if we cut the wires we would probably be the neighborhood heroes!  A gentleman from Holland that we met at lunch and who was married  to a Vietnamese woman and now lives here, said in his neighborhood, they cut the wires! (so we ended up having messages every morning except two but one day he was the commentator for a women’s volleyball tournament that started at 7am… on a Saturday! By the end, we were used to it and slept right through it!)

Our stay here in Hoi An is a tiny family run place with a beautiful little pool and lovely rooms and grounds. Currently, we are the only ones occupying any of their 5 rooms. It is still technically the rainy season here in Southern Vietnam so the tourist crowds are very small. It is not unusual to be the only ones in a restaurant and that has been pretty much the case in all of Vietnam.

Friday, we actually went our separate ways; the most we have been apart since we hit the road September 6. I scheduled a cooking class and Buzz went to the carpentry village.

*** Spoiler Alert I have been advised that some of my posts make people hungry….be warned, this is one of them!!***

My cooking class was fabulous! It was run by a woman whom I am sure was older than she looks since she looked about 20 yet had an 18 year old daughter. There were 10 people in my class and we each picked a dish. The day started at the local market buying all the ingredients for the dishes. How did Van (the instructor) purchase all of the ingredients for 10 dishes….WITHOUT A LIST!!! I need a list when I just need to buy milk!! The market was great fun and she talked to us about all the different kinds of rice and vegetables and meat cuts, etc. All the people who owned the stands were women, which is something different than India, for certain. Back at Van’s home kitchen, we started the prep for our chosen dish and then helped with the general cutting of veggies, onions, garlic, etc. which is very large quantities in very small pieces in Viet Nam. We started at the market at 9am and ate our first dish at 12:30pm. We had stir frys, curries, fish cakes, sweet and sour fish soup, bun cha (which is what Obama had in Viet Nam and I did not like in Hanoi but this was delicious!) Pho, fish in a clay pot and my choice, Banh Xeo, a traditional Vietnamese pancake with pork and shrimp. They were all delicious and by about the 5^th dish the food coma started to set in. I basically took two bites of the dishes because I wanted to eat my dish when the time came. The Bahn Xeo was fabulous, thanks to Van and her great cooking tips.  By the time the Pho came, full food coma had definitely set in! Then Van brought out shots of some homemade Macadamia Nut Rice Vodka. OMG!! It was fabulous and that just made my cooking class much more expensive! (For those interested, this cooking class was $30 USD and worth every penny!)

Buzz here….

Our host called a boat captain she knew and made arrangements for me to get a ride to Kim Bong which is a village supposedly known for its carpentry. The boat while rather rickety was serviceable enough to get us there and back. As we approached the island I saw a number of boats under rehab by some carpenters. I checked them out before I left. The ‘dry dock’ method was very interesting for sure. After we docked, the captain took me down the street to the first shop. As we walked in, I was a bit disappointed as it was mostly finished hand carved pieces of animals, Buddhas, etc. He motioned me to the back of the shop and through a door into a working shop where they were several men making headboards for beds, chairs and other items. Now we are talking! I showed them some photos of my work and we tried to communicate a bit about it, but I ended up just wandering around the shop while they worked. OSHA would definitely NOT approved of he machinery and he work environment. Their work was good, but not at the level I had hoped to observe, fun none the less. After about 30 minutes, I went outside to find the captain who was bored and wanted to get back to his boat. We made arrangements to meet in about an hour. He went back to the boat and I went off to find more woodworkers. I did find 2 other shops as I roamed the streets, but neither were as advanced from an equipment or quality standpoint as the first one. I passed many of the ubiquitous shops selling drinks and snacks and stopped in one for a beer and had a fun conversation with the owner who knew a bit of English and tried to teach me some Vietnamese. Oh well, she tried. The ride back to Hoi An was uneventful. It was interesting watching the captain start the motor by crank. I understand it may have been an old style motor called ‘Hit and Miss’, an apt name for sure!

Buzz found Streets, a restaurant similar to Know One, Teach One in Hanoi where they train disadvantaged kids for careers in restaurants. This one seems to go a step farther with dorms for the kids and all. The food is simple and fresh and the service was great. We met with our new German friend, Katya, to say goodbye.

Hoi An is a lovely town; it is clean and the people are friendly. It is not too expensive and has a great beach. We made it to the beach twice: the first time we didn’t go far enough (riding bicycles with no gears which were about half the size we needed them to be in order to be able to pedal without our knees nearly breaking) and the beach had experienced lots of storm damage. The shore was lined with huge sandbags and you could hardly even get to the ocean. The surf was very rough here and it proved to be a great place to watch the waves crashing.

Our second beach day, we had rented a motor bike and we went far enough to hit An Trang beach which is a lovely beach lined with restaurants and lounge chairs. There are a zillion restaurants for every budget, taste, and chair size (we always have to eliminate the ones with the baby sized chairs!) Hoi An is a town of about 90,000 people so big enough to have everything but small enough to still be calm and less frenetic than a larger city. We are sad to be leaving here.

When we first started planning this trip 9 months ago, I zeroed in on the Lunar Festival in Hoi An and we planned our Viet Nam portion around being in Hoi An for that. It was really great; hundreds of people just walking around the streets, taking boat rides down the river, floating candles down the river…all in the dark! The town turns off their street lights and bridge lights for this night. It wasn’t a “Disney” spectacle; it was a lovely little town celebrating their natural world with a bunch of Westerners joining in. It was truly a “Viet Nam moment” for me. I loved it and if you are ever in these parts, do not miss Hoi An and try to be here on the 14^th lunar day. Here in this semi-sleepy little town, people of all ages and race join in and thank Mother Nature for her wonders. We forgot about all the hate being spewed in our homeland and were at peace.

We absolutely fell in love with the family that ran our inn. They were so sweet, kind, and attentive. And their daughter, Ruby, fell in love with Buzz. What a doll she is!

By the way, the breakfast at our “hotel” was fabulous and almost every day we picked the beef with eggs and tomatoes. I got the recipe and I was told that Dau Ha brand Soy Sauce was very important to the dish. Hope our Vietnamese market has it!!