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Published: November 7th 2009
Our third day in Hoi An started with a much deserved sleep in and lazy breakfast at our new hotel... we then walked into town to do a pre-booked cooking class with Red Bridge Cooking School. The course started at Hai Cafe where we were given a free drink and were able to buy some sweet little bracelets off one of the many street vendors... from there we walked to the local market to look at the local produce, while our guide purchased some token items for our cooking class...
Having done a million markets this part really wasnt that interesting until halfway through the tour I turned to realise that McKay had done a disappearing act... I didnt worry too much for about 5 minutes thinking she would catch up but as we twisted and turned through the crowds I began to worry... Little did I know she had stopped to take a photo of something (she is more of a photo whore than I am!), turned around and we had disappeared... she was now desperately trying to phone me but I couldnt hear my phone and I was under the impression she didnt have her phone anyway... I
eventually notified the guide who went looking for her... 5 minutes later she was back safe and sound with the group..
After the market tour we were loaded up onto a boat which would take us along the river to the Red Bridge school... on the way there I was saying to McKay that I really had to find the coconut lolly lady before leaving Hoi An to get some more candy to bring home.. the stuff is so good.... as we sat on the boat I turned to see the coconut lolly lady stepping onto our boat to try sell her wares! She immediately recognised me and I bought 3 packs! I was going to buy all 5 but didnt want to look like a complete pig... I figured I would run into her again to get more later!! LOL
During our 15 minute boat ride to the cooking school our attention was drawn to the guy sitting across from us... straight away I could tell he was Australian.. and I was completely ashamed.. he was chatting up some lone female traveller who was clearly suffering from the conversation.. he had on ASICS joggers, black socks pulled
up with playing cards printed on them (seriously), a beige/baby poo coloured pair of shorts and matching shirt.. and to complete his outfit he was wearing an Australian flag bum bag.... Urgh!!!
Upon arriving at the cooking school we were seated in a classroom like format with the chef at the front demonstrating... there was a large mirror angled behind the chef so you could see what he was doing from the back row... I was dismayed to see that the only seat left was next to me and the only person left standing was Mr UN-Australian... Double Urgh!! Luckily for me, and to prove the point that he was indeed a complete tool, he grabbed the seat and moved it up the front and off to the side so he could see the cooking! Duh!
When the chef asked for a volunteer of course he was the first person to offer... Now to make matters worse and annoy me even more he had a starring role in my cooking course! This was going to be a looong day! The course was kind of fun but it wasn't the best one I have done in SE Asia... we
learnt how to make our own rice paper, then used it to make fresh spring rolls, cooked a clay pot eggplant dish and did Banh Xeo (rice flour pancakes)... After each dish we would eat it..
While cooking the Eggplant dish McKay decided to rush ahead and added ALL the fish sauce that we were meant to share... rather than letting her start again the chef said 'no problem it will be fine'... at the end we took our Eggplant dish and sat in the restaurant where they served us a fish dish as well (and just gave us the recipe for it)... McKays eggplant dish was almost inedible due to the high content of fish sauce .. it was like pouring salt in your mouth.... LOL
Would I recommend the Red Bridge cooking course? Probably not... its the most popular on the tourist trail but the dishes werent the most useful ones you would take home and use... and I think some of the smaller courses would cost the same, if not less and you would be able to find better 'Vietnamese recipes' to learn... The location was fantastic.. in a small hut right on the riverside..
but a little overrated in my opinion based on the cooking classes I have taken in Thailand.... The Thailand ones cost less and you walked away with a proper cookbook full of recipes... With RedBridge you got given a photocopy handout of the recipes from the day + the fish dish we were served in the restaurant... Plus you had to pay for drinks with your meal! I noted that there were plenty of little restaurants advertising cooking classes everywhere in the town so next time I would probably just enquire at a few different places and find something better.
From the cooking class we were dropped back to town on the boat, and we decided to head to Cargo Club again for coffee and cake.... We then went back to our tailors for fittings... At Quoc Huy Tailors we picked up McKays dress and one of my tops... By this stage McKays dress had started to look pretty good.. but we are still not sure how the things we have bought here will fare once put in the wash! I tried on my silk top again and told them it needed more hook n eyes (as per my
old top they were meant to be copying)... They told me to come back in half an hour... Once finished there (we were slowly beginning to hate the manager ... she was soooo rude) we headed back to Bi Chau Tailors to check out our skirts we had ordered.. they were perfect and we decided to order more in different colours! I also ordered a sun-dress... which I love to death but isnt very flattering in photos (you will see in an upcoming blog!!).. but I still love it as its so comfy!!
From Bi Chau we headed back to Quoc Huy Tailors for me to get the top... they had put in HALF of the hook n eyes I had asked for and they were all crooked.. by this stage I was getting annoyed .. I told her to fix it and I would come back the next day.... Grrrr.... from there we went to Bale Well for dinner... Bale Well is the little restaurant that we went to on our first day for lunch..the food is amazing and we cant recommend it highly enough... its one of those off the tourist trail restaurants full of locals eating..
Anyone heading to Hoi An in the future should definitely put it in your "must do" list for really good traditional Hoi An specialities... just ask for their set menu so you sample it all (only 4 things on menu anyway)... they are located at 45/51 Tran Hung Doo St... it is in a little alley that runs between Tran Phu St and Tran Hung Dao St.
After eating more than we could handle we rolled ourselves back to Southern Silk tailors for fittings/alterations then caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel.... At some point during the night we were woken to heavy rain and strong winds... it looked as though Tropical Storm Mirinae had arrived... we had been semi-watching the weather so were kind of expecting it but crossed our fingers that it would just clear overnight as we had our last day planned for a bike ride out to the beach and to explore a couple of little islands at the river...
Typhoon Mirinae
After a little sleep in and some breakfast we realised that our beach plan had gone down the drain and that 'Tropical Storm' Mirinae was here to stay....
we caught the shuttle bus to town with plans to just wander the town in the rain.. why not! Once we arrived we quickly found a store that was selling plastic ponchos, kitted up and set off on our adventure... As usual we were hungry and had been told that the river was starting to flood so decided to head to the river front for some lunch... as we went to walk down the street that is between the restaurants and the river we realised it was underwater! The river had risen up and was now flowing out into the street...Awesome... we headed to the street behind and went to Cargo Club as alot of the restaurants have entrances from both the back street and the riverfront... we sat up on the balcony, ordered a feast and sat back to watch the rain and the water level rise!
We got chatting to some Aussies (well Kiwi's living in Aus) at the next table - Brooke, Alex and Ren and spent the next couple of hours just chatting with them... they were making plans to get out of town and head to Nha Trang to get away from the storm...
After about an hour of sitting there we could hear a lady speaking on a loudspeaker... we asked the staff what was being said and they said that it was a warning that the Typhoon would be hitting Hoi An that night... great our tropical storm had just been upgraded to a Typhoon... I had a look over the balcony and it was basically a police Hilux Ute driving along the streets stopping every few 100 meters to make the announcement .. nice warning system!!! :-)
We started to go into 'slight' panic mode about what we should do... should we stay and ride out the storm (and risk being stuck here longer) or should we get out of Hoi An that night.... In the end we decided to stay.. we were on the 2nd floor of a secure hotel that was out of the city centre and we figured that if our flights were cancelled we could always get the train as a last minute option...
While chatting with Brooke, Alex and Ren, McKay disappeared from the table.. she was gone for ages and I started to wonder where she was but figured she was probably downstairs
taking photos of the flooding... When she finally appeared she was looking a little worse for wear and had actually been in the toilet spewing from both ends (if you get the drift!!!) ... Being the trooper that she is, she was hungry not too long after and her excuse... she had vomited lunch up! I love this chick!!
We decided it was time to get some last minute shopping in so headed off.. When we went to leave we discovered that someone had stolen McKays poncho and left a very sad looking one in its place.. full of holes... sooo funny! Completely ripped off!! hehehehe!
The day before, McKay had found a gorgeous eggshell lacquer painting (specific to Vietnam) that she loved.. it was really expensive but an original and great quality.. shw hadnt stopped talking about it so decided it was meant to be hers.. we went back and she purchased it (we now have a very large painting to carry around!)... we did some more shopping buying gifts and homewares... the shopping in Vietnam is sooooo great... I much prefer it to my 2nd home Thailand...
We went back to Quoc Huy to pick
up my top and McKay refused to even walk in the shop she hated the manager so much! LOL I didnt bother trying the top on... the hook n eyes had been done as asked but still dont feel 100% secure... at this stage I just couldnt be bothered though... the workmanship on it is sooo shoddy! Urgh! NOT recommended... FAIL! From here, we found a DVD shop figuring that we would probably be stuck watching DVD's all night in our room due to the weather and I bought 17 DVDs for $15.. much cheaper than Thailand and all appear to be good quality...
We then went to Southern Silk for final fittings on everything we had ordered... more adjustments needed to be made and as we were leaving the next day we were starting to feel a little panicked.. we asked if they could bring them to our hotel first thing in the morning (hoping they would be perfect then).. We then went back to the hotel, got ready and decided to have our final meal back at Cafe 43... we truly loved the place and I had a stuffed squid craving to fulfil... we also hadnt managed
to try the Cao Lao ( a famous noodle dish specific to Hoi An).
At Cafe 43 I ordered the Cao Lao and TWO serves of the stuffed squid, while McKay ordered a Cao Lao and her favourite Fried Wontons... My eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach and I struggled to eat any of my 2nd serve of stuffed squid but forced it down as I didnt want to appear rude! :-( The Cao Lao has since turned into my FAVOURITE dish in all of Vietnam... I have never tasted anything sooooo good. Wow.. we were both so disappointed that we had waited until our last meal to discover this little gem! If I had tried it on Day 1 I would have lived on the stuff.... it was truly the best!
Halfway through our meal the electricity went out due to the storm and within minutes they had gas lanterns everywhere.. very romantic! Hehehehe! We had 8 beers and 5 dishes and our bill was 167,000 dong!!!! That is under $10! Cafe 43 is great.. another "Must Do" for anyone going to Hoi An... it is located at 43 Tran Cao Van .. it runs off
Tran Hung Dao (the post office rd) up the west end.... once on Tran Cao Van.. you go right to the end (North) and keep going (it turns into a curvy alleyway).... you will find it down around the curve!
Full and feeling very fat we headed home to watch DVD's.. I started working on a blog and McKay put on a DVD but she was dead to the world within 2 minutes of the movie starting... LOL.. The typhoon was going on around us but it wasn't half as bad as we expected.. just really really windy.. but the rain had stopped during the evening... I woke up during the night to torrential rain and wind but by the morning it was still just windy!
In the morning I decided that due to the excessive amount of shopping I had already done it would be wise for me to send stuff home instead of incurring excess baggage charges for 6 flights! I got the hotel to arrange for a courier company to come to the hotel.. I was told that it was the same as going to the local post office and not much dearer... plus I
didnt have to lug everything to the post office and wait an hour to get it all done!
They turned up and 9.5 kilograms later they quoted me $95 + $15 insurance... I took the insurance as I was told to basically nominate a value under $1000 USD and that is what I would be paid out in the event it goes missing... sweet $850 was duly noted and I figured that while I would be devastated for all the stuff I am sending home to go missing it would be a nice compensation in the event it happens!
As I had to pay via credit card the man told me that I would have to jump on the back of his bike and take a short ride to the office to use the machine... I knew I was really in Vietnam and had both hands firmly wrapped around its culture as I flew through the streets on the back of this mans bike wearing his assistants pink helmet carrying the empty box I didnt need with one hand... and holding onto the bike with my other hand.. as he rode one handed - with his free hand
just on his knee while balancing a big set of scales and all his paperwork between his legs!!! His assistant stayed at the hotel guarding my box of goods in the meantime! Ah I truly have become one of the locals now!!
Anyway that is enough for another blog... stay tuned for the next installment in our adventure.. Saigon! Its almost home time!! :-(
Love to all
Reet and McKay xxxx
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Kristina
non-member comment
very...
Very entertaining....from crazy flooding, mean managers, annoying aussie guy, cooking school fun, and allllll that yummy food. You now have me hooked into going to Vietnam.