Tourists

Thursday Feb 22, Hoi An

Today we really did the tourist ‘activities’, starting with making our own lanterns.

Well, we didn’t make everything. This guy is assembling the tops and bottoms.

This lady is using thread to position the bamboo staves that make the lamp shape.

 

We were given the task of attaching the fabric to the staves after the staff had applied glue to them. This glue was amazing – it held the fabric firmly but allowed a bit of movement as you tried to stretch it to make it smooth.

I’m guessing that almost half the fabric was trimmed off. Our guide took pictures of us with the finished product but I didn’t. Dumb. The lanterns fold up into cylinders for packing.

Our next activity was a visit to an organic farm. This is the Ancient Gardner on the left with our guide for today.

They loaned us those conical hats that laborers wear. Great sun hats.

Strictly organic. They use liquids made from garlic, ginger, vinegar and rice wine to spray for insects and fungus. Compost is made from cow dung, unused plants and so on. Water comes from a well. This farm was about 2 hectares in size and was broken into 400 square meter lots by the owner for others to use, as well as a much larger portion for the owners.

Next up a basket boat ride. The BBs turned out to be the Vietnamese version of a very old form we call a coracle. I’d always wondered how you propel a coracle in one direction. It takes a particular stroke that manages to combine a left and right movement.

As we assembled one oarsman demonstrated a fishnet throw. No luck this time.

A bit embarrassing to find your energetic oarsman is somebody’s granny.

It was a peaceful 20 minute ride, and then we got back into our vans for the last stop.

It was lunchtime and we were going to participate in cooking the first two courses. Here we are chopping vegetables for the salad.

After that we took thick slices of eggplant, slit them 80% through and filled the slot with a pork and spice mixture. Then we dipped them in a sticky goop and coated them with breadcrumbs ready for frying.

The ‘salad’ was cooked in the wok with shrimp thrown in at the last moment.

Then it was served on rice/sesame crackers. Actually pretty good (8/10).

Then it was time for the stuffed eggplant.

The cook turned the flame up to 11 (very difficult at home) and added a couple of quarts of vegetable oil. Soon he was frying the eggplant. He could tell when they were done by the color. They also turned out to be tasty, although I could not tell you what they tasted of. Deep frying makes everything better but sometimes it doesn’t matter what you’re frying. (8/10)

 

Two other courses were very disappointing. The grilled fish in banana leaf, coated with turmeric we think, was hard and dry (2/10). The greens were boiled morning glory (not the flower we know) and were fine as greens (6/10).
The stir-fried chicken with garlic was dry again (4/10). Darn. The veggies with it were fine if you like lots of garlic.

It was fun to ‘work’ in the kitchen. Such a shame about those dry dishes.

Back in our hotel for the next few hours.

And down to the restaurant for Happy Hour. Two for one so we had one Pina Colada and one Virgin Pina Colada.

 

I had a big bowl of pumpkin soup. Good but not great (7/10).
Alice had Vietnamese noodles with seafood and the calamari was the best yet (7/10).

 

Side of fries – excellent (9/10).
Opera cake – also very good (9/10). We had to dig for it. There was a bakery display counter outside the restaurant and no mention of any cakes on the menu. After some effort, we learned we could order some. Strange.

Our guide, Simon Legree, has set a wakeup call for 5:15 a.m. so it’s an early bed tonight.