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Published: September 23rd 2007
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The market
Where fresh food abounds... right next to street dogs Hoi An is gorgeous. It is a riverside town full of cafes, bakeries and tailors. It is one of those places where you can just wander around and still feel like you're experiencing the place. But I didn't just spend the whole time getting fittings (though I did get a bright blue coat for winter- rather excited).
On my first morning there, I woke up nice and early to walk into town for a cooking course. I was a bit reluctant to join the course at first, because I'd already done one in Chiang Mai, and Thai food is a bit more infamous for it's good taste than that of Vietnam, which is often described as bland. Wrong. Despite being devoid of any ladyboys, the cooking class was still a bunch of fun, and the setting- stunning.
It started off meeting at a cafe for a free drink, then off to the local markets to suss out how to find the best ingredients. A boatride up the river took us to the Red Bridge Cafe, where the cooking class was to be held, and after a quick look around the herb gardens, we were on a stilted open room
looking over the river, with palm trees and other such cliched idyllic things.
Our first dish was a sweet and sour squid salad served in a shelled out pineapple. Well, a tofu salad in my case. There were 6 other dishes that were demonstrated, most of which we had a hand at making ourselves as well. Probably the most exciting thing to learn though, was how to make fresh rice paper... from scratch. You have to start the process at least 7 hours before you want to do anything with it, but still, how cool is that, rice paper.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the food that we made just got chucked in the river (not that they can be blamed, after my attempt at a Hoi An pancake- though in my defence some lady didn't let me flip it, so it's not really my fault it was burnt). This theory was strengthened slightly when someone pointed out a piece of eggplant floating along. I swear my claypot eggplant wasn't thaaaat bad.
We also took a hand at making garnishes- a rose out of a tomato and a Vietnamese fan out of cucumber. My fan was
terrible, but my rose, a work of art, if you ignore the fact that it was actually 6 pieces that I had artfully stuck together with tomato juice. As long as no one moved the plate or any strong wind came along, it was definitely fit for the top restaurants.
Anyway, we ate a lunch of the dishes we had made (though, as I suspect, not made by us), then settled down by the pool next door which the cooking students were allowed to use for free. That pretty much whiled away my day.
That night, after going out to dinner, we started heading off to the Cargo Club for a pasterie and coffee before heading to bed. On the way, I stubbed my toe, for absolutely no reason, but it took off a few layers of skin and started bleeding. Not to mention it was rather painful. So I stopped at the corner store to buy some bandaids. I knew I wouldn't be long, so I let the others go up ahead of me. Big mistake. Pretty much as soon as I came out of the cornerstore the heavens opened up and rain was just pissing down
An edible garden
My attempt at garnishes on me. There were Vietnamese women here and there trying to get me to buy an emergency poncho, but I figured that after a few seconds of that torrential downpour, I was about as wet as I was going to get. So I trudged on. And on. And I reached the end of the street, and I still hadn't seen the Cargo Club. So I turned around, and walked all the way back to the cornerstore and a bit further. It was here that I found 2 travellers, so I asked them if they knew of a place famous for good pasteries (because at this point I didn't even know it was called Cargo Club, just that it was something starting with c with the word club after it). Anyway, they told the names of two places, and that they were both down the other end of the street, but that the names of the places are below some other name which just describes in Vietnamese what the place is.
So, with water still pouring down on me, I covered the length of the street for the 3rd time. I found the Cargo Club. I came inside, looking like
Not Jim Morrison
There are paintings in all the cafes, bars, clubs... I blame this one for losing a game of pool. I'd just come out a shower. Then I went to get the large amount of dirt out of the sore in my toe, which was still bleeding. And of course, the bandaids didn't stick. Nice to know it was all worth it! A chocolate pasterie did a lot to ease the pain, but being the stubborn person that I am, I refused to buy a poncho, seeing as how wet I already was. So I was getting even wetter and colder, trudging back. Luckily Marty (our travel guide) offered me a lift on the back of the motorcycle he'd parked outside the restaurant. There was no hot water in the shower for some reason, so I just got into dry clothes and straight into bed.
The next day was spent at Hoi An beach. And I must say, I was impressed. Thailand is renouned for it's beautiful beaches, and sure enough, a lot of them are amazing. But Hoi An's beach is pretty darn good. Í'd rate it better than Phuket. And that's even without the bonus points from the fact that there are less seedy tourists mulling around, and more restaurants serving your food straight to your free deck chair. The water was amazingly warm, there was no rip, it was just an all round awesome beach.
So there was the next day whiled away. That night there was a Vietnamese wedding after party next to where we were staying. It was characterised by loud club music, fold up chairs, cake and a woman in a ridiculously poofy fairytale dress. Then we headed off the Seamile Club, where we controlled the music, they sold buckets, there was a heated pool and plenty of foreign people to meet. In short, Hoi An was really really cool. Next morning it was on a plane and off to Saigon a.k.a Ho Chi Minh City.
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Dad
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Pool !!!!!
Has anyone taught you how to make a bridge yet (as in pool not as in river)?