Vietnam & Singapore - Hoi An

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Today we moved on to Hoi An, the lantern city, busy, colourful and bright, with old and newer parts. We're there for just two nights instead of the three we had been expecting; if you want to know why, please read my previous Vietnam & Singapore blogs – trust me, they’re worth it!

Before leaving Hue though, we visited the Hurong Ho primary school to give the children an opportunity to speak to people who have English as a first language. We had already split into two groups of four, and three groups of three, and I was in a four with Susan, Liz and Debbie. We had already bought some gifts (prizes), notebooks and pens for the children, as well as some sweet treats and a class football, so after being welcomed to the school by the Principal and two of the same LA VIPs who we’d met at the home of Miss M, we entered a class laden with bags of goodies and accompanied by one of the school English teachers.

The children were very quiet to begin with, and we were told that we were the first foreigners they had ever met. We introduced ourselves, with me attempting to say, ‘Hello, my name is Belinda and I live in the UK’ in Vietnamese. Despite being coached by Mr T at breakfast, they all looked at me blankly. Ah well. The other three introduced themselves in English.

We had discussed a ‘lesson plan’, and I use those words loosely, so started off with hangman, all doing an animal, then a game that Liz knew call ‘7 heads up’, and then Simon Says. Hangman and 7 heads up had its challenges with communications, but Simon Says got them on their feet and loosened them up a bit. We followed that with the Hokey Cokey, and as we had a few minutes left, Susan then lead on If You’re Happy And You Know It. By the end we were all laughing and having fun, and when we gave them their treats and the class football they clapped and cheered.

We said good bye, and they all wanted our signatures in their books – Fairy Nuff! We then headed off, travelling south.

We stopped at the Loc Tri waterfall for a swim. OMG!!! It was AMAZING! I have really missed my cold water, and while this wasn’t ‘cold cold’, it was the best I’d had for a while, and very refreshing. Brenda, Kerrie and Karen joined me in the water while the others looked on. On our journey to the waterfall, Mr T had told us a very personal and harrowing story about a massive flood at his home when he was six, and explained why he has never been able to learn to swim – completely understandable having heard his experience!

Our next stop was at Lap An lagoon for lunch. We spent a few minutes taking photos of the oyster farming and browsing the pearl shop before ordering lunch. Several of us ordered oysters. I had chicken with fried rice and an absolutely delicious iced coconut coffee; I will certainly be ordering that again!

We carried on over the Van Hai pass, the roads corkscrewing up round the mountains before heading down the other side, and reminding Susan and me of our travels in New Zealand (2019). We stopped at a viewpoint to take photos of the beautiful and panoramic views, and could see Da Nang across the bay – the largest city and the leading industrial centre of Central Vietnam. As we drove through and around Da Nang I might have closed my eyes for a few minutes.

We arrived at our hotel in Hoi An, the Thanh Binh Central Hotel, settled into our very nice rooms and headed out for a walk with Mr T into the Old Area, full of tailors, clothes shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and general ‘tat’ shops. Some of the group wanted to order some clothes to be made so went into one of tailors recommended by Mr T, but Susan and I went straight across the road to the Green Mango restaurant where we were eating.

The menu was very different to the other restaurants we’d been in, and I chose grapes wrapped in goats cheese followed by brioche with smoked salmon – a real change to the authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

The next morning I had a pre-prandial swim in the hotel pool to wake me up for the day. The temperature was similar to that of the waterfall, and it really set me up for the day.

After breakfast a couple of electric shuttle buses took us to experience the round bamboo boats, one of the ‘must not miss’ tourist experiences in Hoi An. I was expecting a quite calm and sedate paddle around the water coconut groves, but that was not to be. Susan and I had a live-wire woman as our paddler and as soon as we embarked she started singing ‘Ole ole ole ole’ and ‘Gangham Style!’ We looked at each other, both confused, but smiled at her and nodded. We floated up between two little islands, hearing some ‘beat’ in the distance which gradually increased in volume. As we rounded a corner the volume of the music increased considerably and we saw a huge speaker banging out the beat, with a man in one of the round boats putting on a show by spinning fast and rocking up and down.

Our paddler took us with the rest of our group to another young man who put on a show especially for us – despite the incessant music, it was really entertaining, and even more so when Kerrie and then Jackie joined him in the boat for a ride! They held on tight!

We disembarked safely after a spot of unsuccessful crab fishing and quick spin in the boat, and wandered back to the shuttles to do a bit of farming in a nearby village. What fun we had! We were greeted with a welcome drink containing frogs’ eggs, or we were told! Obvs they weren’t really, but they were seeds from the basil plants grown on the farm. The village was a community farm, with over 135 ‘allotment’ type areas, really well organised and cared for, in fact it was the neatest bit of gardening I’ve seen for ages, possibly ever, and appeared to cover a few acres!

We were taught by our host’s uncle how to prepare the soil for planting – hoeing, raking and making a border - and then planted a small area of mint seedlings, before being shown how the watering cans work. They’re held by string on the ends of a pole supported on the back of the neck, and you swing them up and down as you walk. We were all able to have a go, walking along a planted area, with Mr T standing at the far end taking photos, and yes, he did end up a little damp!

We then had a cooking lesson, being taught how to cook a local delicacy called Three Friends, a delicious little morsel consisting of marinated shrimp and pork, quickly fried and wrapped together with coriander and mint in a spring onion ‘ribbon’ and decorated with a small pink flower. The second lesson was crispy pancakes with shrimp, but Susan and I both preferred the Three Friends.

The host was such a lovely woman, with a huge personality and brilliant sense of humour. Kathleen commented that she could have her own cooking show on TV, and I wouldn’t disagree!

We had a couple or hours to kill when we arrived back at the hotel, so Susan and I popped to the local nail place a couple of doors down and had a manicure and pedicure; not something I have often, but they were ok.

This was our last night as a group of 17. Eight of us would be leaving in the morning, and nine of us would be carrying on to the bolt-on part of the trip. Before our goodbye meal most of us headed out to the Teh Dar bamboo circus. Seriously, this is one of my highlights of the trip; I was completely mesmerised by the skill, strength and incredible acrobatic performance of the troupe, and I would highly recommend seeing it if you get the chance. There’s a short documentary about it here: