Seeing as I'm finishing this blog on April 6 ... I'm very glad past me decided to make some quick notes on my Hoi An trip back in February. . . So to the best of my recollection, here's what happened during the first week in February. Day 1: My friend, Liz, and I flew to Danang to start our Tet Holiday. For those of you that are not familiar with Tet (I don't expect most of you to be), it's basically Chinese Lunar New Year, except not called that because Vietnam isn't a super big fan of China (and other reasons I'm sure). In Danang, we hit up an Indian restaurant a friend recommended (definitely not disappointed), pick up our motorbike rental, and drive down the coast to Hoi An. We check into our homestay and within minutes there's a cry from the bathroom. See photo below, we have a "hygiene" banner on our toilet. Odd but hilarious ... you're welcome, your life is now complete. Before we planned this trip, we knew that Hoi An is famous for its lanterns and lantern festivals. Unfortunately, the actual lantern festival was still a few weeks off so we settle for finding a place to make lanterns. Luckily for us, there's a "factory" (I'll explain the quotes in a minute) just down the road so we borrow some bikes from the homestay and make our way there. We arrive where Google Maps leads us and are immediately like "factory? ... okay then." It looks like someone's giant picnic shelter (for lack of better terminology). There are a few people sitting on the floor making lanterns. Someone goes to get the one person who speaks English and she asks us if we would like to make lanterns. We sit with another worker who knows about a dozen words of English and learn how to make our lanterns. Well ... we learned how to do the fabric part of it anyways. Afterwards, we walk/bike around town. We see the Japanese bridge, walk through the market, go in some bookstores, and have some gelato. In one of the bookstores, we found the anime version of many classic novels. See Les Mis and Jane Eyre in photo below. Unfortunately they were shrink wrapped so I couldn't see what it actually turned into but very interesting if you like anime and classic literature I guess. At the market, we find this burnt orange concoction in banana leaves. As Liz is a pro at trying new foods, we decide to inquire. We learn that it is called bánh tổ and that is is "traditional Vietnamese" . . . after that we don't know enough Vietnamese yet and they don't know enough English. We decide to wait on trying it until we know more. We text both our Vietnamese teacher and a friend of mine to ask if they know what it is . . . they've never heard of it . . . neither has a friend of my friend who lives near Hoi An. "traditional Vietnamese" my butt. . . . Anyways, when we go back to the homestay later, we ask our host about it. Bánh tổ: rice flour, "too much sugar", ginger, water. This mixture is poured into a banana leaf bowl and baked (I think). To prepare for eating (do not eat as is), you cut slices and fry it. We decide this is an acceptable thing to try and make sure we get one by the end of the trip. Took two tries after getting back to Hanoi, but figured out how to cook it and make it taste good. The first attempt was like weird mochi textured ginger flavored thing. The proper (2nd) attempt was crispy and delicious. After dinner, we go to the night market (or maybe dinner was at the night market ... idk) and run into my housemate Clare. We walk around together for awhile checking out all the food stalls and goods being sold. Clare eventually goes off with her family and we continue to wander around. After some coffee we gather with a crowd to watch a group of break dancers. The group is all Vietnamese dudes plus a random white couple. The music was a throwback to the 90s and totally awesome. Everyone has moves worth watching but the white girl never goes up. She's stretching and warming up FOREVER but never goes. To be fair, the boys are totally hogging the sidewalk. We eventually give up on seeing her dance and head back to the homestay for the night. Day 2: In the morning we borrow bikes again (we did a lot of bike riding) and head out to explore. There are some islands that we hear are good for biking so once we make it to an island we play "left, right, or straight." This is a fantastic game to play while exploring and leads you to some awesome places. Do not play if you cannot handle being lost or have somewhere to be at a certain time. We see a ton of water buffalo, rice paddies, and very curious Vietnamese people that are probably wondering what two white girls are doing biking around the middle of nowhere. We get a banh mi at a local place that's famous (some celebrity chef said it was good and now it's popular ... can't remember who though). It was a banging banh mi though. Don't know what they do differently from Hanoi but definitely better. For the afternoon we head to An Bang Beach, walk along the shore for a bit then sip a fancy cocktail on our beach chairs. No we did not go swimming, neither of us thought that far ahead and the water was freezing anyways. In the evening, we walk around looking for a place to eat cao lau (a famous Hoi An dish) and run into our colleagues Brian and Zach. They had just eaten some cau lau and are enjoying a few beers so we join them for a bit and eat dinner. The cao lau is quite good. umm I'll try to describe it: fat-ass noodles (not like wide but thick ... think spaghetti but all around fatter), greens, bean sprouts, pork, and a sauce that is reminiscent of soy sauce. After dinner, we get on one of the many river boats. After sunset, there are maybe 50-100 boats on the water. Everyone has a lantern which they light and put in the water. We make a wish (not sure if you're supposed to or not ... but why not) and add ours to the growing army of lanterns on the water. Day 3:
Our original plan for my last day (Liz stayed in Hoi An and worked her way up to Hue later in the week) was to go to carpentry village. When we looked it up, turned out we had accidentally gone there during our game of "left, right, or straight" ... it was largely empty due to Tet so we didn't go back. Instead, we found pottery village and decide to head there. It's largely dead (because Tet and people are off with their families) but we find a couple who let us do pottery painting and play with their dog. The chicken is mine and the vase is Liz's. We're true artists and will be willing to work for commission. On our way back, we accidentally run into Justin and his hoard of visiting friends. We sit and chat for awhile then head to Cua Dai beach. What this beach lacks in cocktails, it makes up in peaceful palm trees and coconuts. We sit and read for awhile, very relaxing, then head back into town. After packing up my things, I meet up with Justin and his crew to head back to Danang to catch our flights back to Hanoi.
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ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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