Hoi An: Food, Full Moon Festival and first visit to the doctor

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Much has happened since our arrival to Hoi An! Our cooking class at Morning Glory turned out to be a wonderful experience. We walked through a heavy drizzle on our way to the restaurant around 8:30, which was a bit of a bummer, but luckily the weather cleared up pretty quickly. According to the locals, the mostly sunny weather we've had during our time here is pretty rare during this time of year; usually Hoi An gets a lot of heavy rain in the winter, often to the point of flooding. The rain did give us the opportunity to try out some awesome conical Asian hats, provided by the restaurant when we got there. Our class began with a visit to the market, led by a great guide who showed us around the fruit, vegetable, herb, meat and fish sections, stopping along the way to explain to us how Hoi An natives use different items in their cooking. She also told us how to tell if certain produce was ripe and of good quality, and she even passed around various herbs for us to smell while she told us what they were and how the restaurant used them. She even bought a few fruits for us to try and, if we decided we wanted to buy something, she helped us get non-tourist prices, which was nice.

When we got back to Morning Glory, we headed upstairs to a private room reserved for classes. We were delighted to find that the class was completely hands-on, unlike our last one. We all sat at long tables, each of us having a "station" with our own burners. The chef/teacher was at the front of the room with a large, tilted mirror above her providing everyone with a good view of what she was doing. First, she'd demonstrate how to cook a dish, step by step, and then it was our turn. Her several helpers would bring us all the necessary ingredients and guide us through if we forgot a step. We made a total of five dishes: shrimp dumpling soup, fresh spring rolls, a fried Vietnamese style pancake (which was more like a crepe) rolled up in rice paper with herbs and veggies, a mango salad and spiced chicken skewers. The restaurant specializes in Vietnamese street food, as well as traditional cuisine, so we were able to get a taste of both. When we were finished cooking, we got to eat all of our tasty creations, which was the best part since they were all delicious. When the class ended, we were each given a booklet containing the recipes we'd used along with the surprise gift of a Vietnamese fruit and vegetable grater. We enjoyed the class and the food so much that we bought the restaurant owner/head chef's cookbook afterwards, and we can't wait to use it when we get home! We've also eaten at Morning Glory several times this week...

Following our class, we headed to our fitting at Kimmy, the custom tailor shop. The clothes we'd designed looked and fit great for the most part, only needing a few minor adjustments. Apparently it takes a few fittings to get everything exactly right (flash back to wedding dress fittings), so we were glad we had a few days to spare. When we picked up our clothes, we were very happy with the results and had even made a few friends by then at the shop. They even threw in a free tie for Scott and fixed the broken strap on my purse for free.

During one of our days here we decided to buy tickets to see some of the historic sights in Hoi An's "Old Town." One ticket gives you admission to five of the many old temples, pagodas, preserved historic homes, cultural museums, and traditional craft, music and dancing demonstrations. We went to one of these demonstrations and were able to listen to music being played on traditional instrustments I'd never seen before while dancers performed theatrical interpretations of Vietnamese folklore. We also got to watch beautiful, brightly colored silk lanterns being made. Next, we went to a museum located in an old house that had displays explaining how the Vietnamese used to fish and used to/currently make silk. A guide explained to us the entire process, from the removing of silk from the pupae all the way to the making of the final product, such as a scarf or robe. She told us that the more times you boil the raw silk, the softer it becomes, and she showed us the trick for how to tell if the silk you're buying is real or fake - you should ask the shopkeeper to burn a sample, and if it burns like paper and smells like burnt hair, it's real; if it melts like plastic, it's fake. We also wandered into a photography club's display area/print store, which was really neat. We wished we could have bought one of the artistic and skillfully taken photographs but decided it would be a hassle to get it home.

When we started to get a little tired, we stopped at a small restaurant that served bia hoi, a light, refreshing (and super cheap!) beer that's a trademark of Vietnam. After a few beers and some people watching, we went back to the hotel for the free meal we'd been invited to by our hosts. This was absolutely spectacular. They'd set up several tables pushed together on the front patio, and all the guests were gathered together to talk and get to know one another while enjoying some tasty home-cooked Vietnamese food, prepared by our incredibly hospitable hosts. We ate BBQ pork skewers and fried spring rolls, combined and wrapped in rice paper with herbs and lettuce - very delicious! We sat next to a Dutch couple from Amsterdam who were around our age and spoke English and had a great conversation about our travels. They were traveling through Vietnam from north to south, and we're doing the opposite, so we gave each other tips on what to do and see.

After dinner, it was time to check out the full moon festival in the Old Town. We expected there would be a huge crowd, and there was, but the atmosphere was pretty much the same as all the other nights we've been here, with bright, pretty lanterns lining the streets and hanging from the trees. The only difference, aside from the fact that there was a full moon, was that there were tons of people (especially children) selling little lanterns with candles in them for you to place in the river. This looked quite nice, but it became a bit annoying having people come us to us every five seconds trying to get us to buy a lantern. There were also a few areas with Vietnamese games set up, but they were confusing, and we couldn't figure out exactly what was going on since the people running the games weren't speaking in English. Eventually, from talking to the locals, we found out that the festival is basically a tourist trap to draw people into the city. The Vietnamese in Hoi An celebrate with their tradition of burning incense or aromatic wood on a little altar they construct in their homes or stores with an offering of fruit. I believe the ancient tradition began to give thanks for a successful harvest, but my research may not be totally accurate. In any case, we were glad we got to Hoi An before the festival so we could enjoy its quiet ambiance before the masses flooded in. To escape the crowd, we ducked into a restaurant to treat ourselves to some homemade lemongrass icecream - yum!

One of our final adventures in the city was renting bicycles for a day (for only $1 apiece!) and biking to the nearest beach to have lunch and relax. Unfortunately the food I ordered at the little restaurant we chose wasn't remarkable and upset my stomach, so instead of walking on the beach we just sat in the sand and enjoyed the beautiful view of the ocean and surrounding islands. We got a bit annoyed by locals continuously trying to sell us peanuts, sunglasses, newspapers, beach chairs...you name it, so after awhile we left and biked back to the hotel for some down time.

Sadly, my stomach issues continued to get worse, so eventually Scott decided I should probably go to a doctor. Luckily there was a clinic nearby recommended in our guidebook. We showed up to find a rather large crowd in the waiting area, but were surprised to find that, unlike any experience I've had in the U.S., we were seen within about 15 minutes. The doctor spoke very good English and prescribed me some medicine, which he gave me right there on the spot, and we paid and were out of there in no time. Hopefully the medicine will help, as we leave for Hue at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning by bus. Say a prayer that our bags (which our hosts so kindly cleaned for us) don't end up soaked in fish water again!

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Comments

[Coles Dwight]

Get well Soon!!
Kelly, I miss you and love you. Get well soon! Daddy