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Hoi An , Vietnam We left Nha Trang by bus to the airport which took an hour. Leaving behind a beautiful turquoise coloured ocean on the new highway to the airport. Our new local guide Minh met us and we boarded the bus from Da Nang to Hoi An, a journey of 30 kms along a road built by Korean Soldiers. Today (Tuesday 29th March) is the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Da Nang so there are lots of flags and lights and celebrations planned. I am sure 30 years ago the people didn't feel so good about it but they wouldn'twant to express anything but sheer joy about it today!!! The hotel is very colonial, lots of tiles, large wooden shutters and doors and the rooms are very large and comfortable. We only had 15 minutes before setting off on a walk into the Ancient City, only 100 metres away. Hoi Anwas developed by the Japanese, Chinese and Portugese traders 400 years ago when they had to stop here en route.
It became very popular and the Japanese merchants chose to eventually live here. But then the Emperor of Japan closed Japan and recalled his people home, so the Chinese took over and changed the architecture to their own. It is now a World Heritage Site and the buildings must remain as they were. There are 350 tailors here so nearly every shop is one or shoes or an art gallery. We walked to the Covered Japanese Bridge which was built in 1593 - and still standing. In 1999 they had a big flood and the water came up 1.5 metres but luckily the houses here are 2 storey and they just moveeverything up to the top floor. Each house has a trap door on the upper floor and they use a pulley system to lift the heavier items, eg motorbikes etc. Last October the flood only came up to the peoples knees so the guide said. We went into the oldest Chinese house which is part museum, shop and still a private home where they do beautiful embroidery work. Lots of very interesting contemporary art work here which I love. Some are very bright colours others just black and white. The photographygalleries are great too - but then again they have such interesting subjects. At night we strolled down to Ross's friend (he has many here) Ly's for dinner. We had 'white rose' a Hoi An speciality of rice flour dumpling with pork, fried wanton (another speciality), pork with peanuts in rice paper and a noodle dish with calamari. Really great food and all for100,000 dong ($9) each!!! Geoff and John had bought bottles of red wine from Dalat and Geoff had already opened his bottle for lunch earlier and John brought along his for everyone. Geoff had paid 30,000 dong each (nearly $3) at the Da Lat marketand John had bought the 'export' wine for 50,000 (under $5) to try. The wine is quite drinkable, it was red and alcoholic, and we decided that the difference between Geoff's wine and John's "Export" wine was that John'shad more gold on the label and the word "Export". But we enjoyed them both. After dinner some of us wanted a coffee and Ross took us to a 'boulangerie' where the coffee was really awful. I think they use UHT milk as there is no fresh milk anywhere, but the passion mouse and chocolate mouse were good!!! We also saw different art galleries where they specialise in the lacquer paintings. The children here are moreaggressive with their postcard selling etc. Today is Wednesday 30 March and we headed off for our Cooking Class!!! We met at 8 am for a short walk to meet our local guides from the Red Bridge Cooking School to the local fresh food market. They had already been as the restaurants go between 4-6 am each morning for their produce. I just couldn't believe how small the fish were that they were selling. Bowls and bowls of tiny fish not much bigger than a 50c piece. They stopped at various stalls and showed us examples of some of the various vegetables, spices etc they use in cooking. Then we went to thewharf and boarded a small boat up the river for 30 minutes to the Red Bridge Restaurant.
This restaurant is owned by a local chef Hai and aMelbourne man Mark Hatton (whose family own a boutique hotel in South Yarra). He talked us through each dish as his chefs cooked them and then it was our turn on portable gas rings. Very interesting. Then they also showed us how to cut the tomato skin and make it into a flower, andcucumber into a fan to use as decoration with our food. Not very successful on that one I am afraid. Then we went onto lunch which is a huge open restaurant surrounded by gardens on the banks of the river. The food was the same as we had cooked - only cooked by the chefs this time. We had eggplant, fish, pork and calamari - again too much for us all to eat.
Boarded the boat again back to town - only 5 kms away. On the way back we saw a fisherman and his wife casting a huge net off their tiny boat. It was such a spectacular throw we all applauded - so he laughed and did it again for us. Then paddled over to show us his catch - a basket full oftiny fish. Both were laughing and smiling - just so happy – probably thinking how strange we were at being fascinated with something he does every day.
I went to a tailor shop and ordered a pair of black pants and will pick them up tomorrow ($75) so not cheap but just wanted to try getting a pair to fit well. Anyway it was such a hassle as they have thousands of rolls of fabric to choose from and they want to rush you into deciding what you want, that I just settled on the one pair. It was very hot walking around and we came back and had a swim in the large pool. Had a few Pina Coladas (60,000 dong - $5) by the pool and Geoff collected our laundry which we dropped off earlier with a woman across the street. It was a large amount of clothes and she charged us only $5 for washing and ironing. This evening Geoff and I walked back down to the riverwhere we had earlier seen some very nice looking restaurants. We chose one and had 12 barbeque king prawns with 3 dipping sauces, tuna cutlet with lemongrass and coconut milk, salad, rice and a bottle of Dalat White(not export) all for $20. This morning Geoff and some of the others have gone with Ross for a bicycle ride out to China Beach about 5 kms. As I can't ride a bike, I am here in the air conditioning (it is still very hot here) typing this email...
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