Hoi An

After we escaped the floods of Phong Nha and managed to arrive in Hoi An, we immediately felt relaxed and like at home in the cozy little guesthouse we had chosen.
It was situated halfway between the beach to the north and the old town of Hoi An in the south, everything easily reachable by bike.

After we checked in, we hopped on two bikes and went to the city center to look for food. We went to the local market where you can get pretty much everything from fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, noodles, rice, spices, meat, fish, textiles, toys and tailor made suits.
We went to the foodstalls and enjoyed some good local food and fresh fruit juices.
After lunch we decided that we deserved a treat and went to hang out in a restaurant that offered nice Vietnamese coffee and later on during happy hour good local beer for Alex and some good (!) French wine in a real red wine glass as well as European cheese and ham platters. Not enough treat yet, we had a nice and relaxing footmassage and then a small dinner before heading to bed fully satisfied.

The next day we went sightseeing through the old town of Hoi An. It used to be an important port town until the water level was going down so that bigger ships could not enter Hoi An anymore, losing its importance as a trading center.
However, many of the old buildings, warehouses and assembly halls have been well maintained and can be visited today. We strolled around the center and visited the Japanese bridge, two assembly halls (temples dedicated to gods and goddesses mainly to protect the seamen) and two of the old houses, one of which is still inhabited today.
In the evening we went to one of the "upscale" restaurants in town (for our budget, not for a European budget) and enjoyed delicious fresh local food.
Hoi An looks really charming at night around the river as the bridges are colourfully lit and you have lots of illuminated lanterns in the street that spread a cozy atmosphere and lots of charm.

On day 3 we decided to extend our stay by 2 more days because we enjoyed the atmosphere, the big choice of restaurants and all the good food so much and we were luckily in the position to add one or two more days.
For the third day we had organized a cooking class with Green Bamboo Cooking School and lovely Mrs. Vang. We got picked up at 8:15 in the morning and together with the rest of the group (together 11 adults and 1 child) we first went to the market to buy literally all ingredients for our dishes fresh. Everybody in the group had to decide beforehand for one dish he/she wants to prepare for everybody. This is a great concept as you watch how all the dishes are prepared and at the end can try a great variety of different food.
Imagine to eat 11 dishes, even in small portions only! That day we did not have breakfast nor dinner, we were so stuffed with incredibly good food that we could not eat a single more bite.

But back to business: what did we cook that day? Alex prepared "banh xeo", the Vietnamese rice pancakes with shrimp or pork that are afterwards wrapped in rice paper with lots of fresh herbs. Even though he was a bit nervous at the beginning because people had high expectations in his French capabilities to make crepes, he did an excellent job and his pancakes were probably the best ones we tried in Vietnam!
Moni decided for another signature dish of Vietnamese cuisine: the pho bo, a traditional beef noodle soup.

What we learned during this cooking class was that all ingredients are super fresh in Vietnam, food is generally quite healthy and Vietnamese always combine fried food with fresh herbs to balance the fat. None of the dishes were really difficult to prepare, given you have all the ingredients. The basic ingredients to combine sweet, sour, spicy and salty are usually chili, lemongrass, garlic, lime, sugar and fish sauce.
Some dishes just take a lot of time until they are cooked, like the hearty beef broth for the pho, but in general things are easily prepared.
At the end of the day our feast consisted of fresh springrolls with a homemade dip, stir fried fish with lemongrass and chilis, pork belly stew in freshly squeezed coconut milk, stir fried beef with veggies and crispy noodles, vegetable curry, stir fried chicken with cahsew nuts, barbecue pork with rice vermicelli and homemade peanut sauce, stir fried mixed vegetables, bun cha (bbq pork in a sour spicy sauce with rice vermicelli and greens), Alex' rice pancakes and Moni's beef noodle soup. Can you imagine how full we were?!
In any case we enjoyed the day & the group a lot and we will for sure try to cook some of the stuffs back home as well.

For the next day, we had decided to explore the area around by motorcycle.
A few words to traffic in Vietnam: Vietnam is the nation of motorcycles, most of the space on the streets is taken by people on their scooters, then come busses and trucks and only few people actually own a car. In Vietnam, even cyclists are allowed to enter the motorway if they use the very right lane only (...). And it was only until someone mentionned it that we realized there are literally no "stop" signs in Vietnam (as people would ignore them anyway), more or less no speed limitation signs (as people would ignore them anyway) and not too many other signs in general (as people would probably ignore them anyway). Honking is part of the daily business to let people know that you are there or that you are passing them and also traffic lights only exist in bigger cities (also the red light is often only considered a recommendation to stop, but not an obligation).

So after breakfast we headed up north along to coast to Da Nang and then further to the Hai Van Pass that got famous via the emission of "Top Gear Vietnam". We climbed the pass with our scooter and enjoyed nice views of the coast on the way. We descended on the other side of the pass to arrive at a small fishermen's village and a wide unexploited beach before we decided to turn around and head back. On top of Hai Van pass, we quickly stopped to walk around the old bunkers from the war. Before going back to Hoi An, we made a side trip to a huge pagoda north of Da Nang (forgot the name) and then went to the local beach in Hoi An for a sundowner.

Back at the accomodation we told the owner that we would like to extend our stay once again for another day. She was really happy to hear that and offered to cook Cao Lau for us the next day, a local speciality with Hoi An made noodles, pork, gravy and fresh herbs. We happily accepted this offer as homemade stuff is usually the best!

We kept our motorcycle for the next day as well and went to the ruins of My Son, a UNESCO world heritage site neither of us had heard before. The site contains leftovers of some ancient temples that were built to worship the Hindu god Shiva between the 9th and 13th century, which makes the place even older than Angkor Wat.
Unfortunately, the Americans bombed this area during the war and that is the reason why you can only see ruins today.
Even though My Son is much smaller than Angkor, the place was quite impressive in the jungle environment, some of the temples were still in okayish shape, some had been restored and one could still see the various bomb holes.

On the way back our scooter was at some point going a bit unsteadily, so we stopped and realized that we had ... tata ... a flat tire at the back. The good thing about Vietnam being a motorbike nation is that on pretty much every corner you find a garage or repair shop or just somebody that can help. We only had to push our bike back 50m and there was a tiny repair shop. Nobody spoke English, but as our problem was quite obvious the guy got to work and within 10min found the puncture, patched it up and refilled the tire with air. And all that for about 90 cents - thanks a lot!

As it was super hot and humid that day, we had packed our swimming suits and went to the beach in Hoi An in the afternoon. We relaxed in the shadow on a less frequented part of the beach, were reading our books and went swimming in the very warm sea.
And then we headed back to eat the promised Cao Lau at our homestay. As expected it was the best Cao Lau we had tried in Hoi An and the lady was so happy we liked her food that she went to the first floor of the building to secretely take a picture of us eating in the garden :D.

The last day in Hoi An was again a relaxing day where we did not do much except sleeping long, going for a massage, drinking some of our last Vietnamese coffee and of course eat some more delicious food. After a good week (we had originally planned 3 nights) it was time for us to leave and carry on. Our host got a bit sentimental when we said goodbye to her, she hugged us about 5 times and one could see some tears in the corners of her eyes. She was such a lovely and caring host - her place really felt like what other guesthouses often advertise: a "home away from home".

When we were checking where to best cross the border to Laos we saw two possibilities: either around central Vietnam so we could go to southern Laos and then make our way up or to go back to northern Vietnam and then travel north to south in Laos. As our original plan was to go to Cambodia after Laos and the mountaineous northern Laos is best to do until end of October (before it gets cold), we decided to cross the border in Dien Bien Phu and travel north to south in Laos. This would have meant two days of backtracking, so we decided to save time and fly all the way up to Dien Bien Phu. Luckily domestic flights in Vietnam are really cheap, so it was alright for our budget.

We will tell you about the border crossing and our experience in northern Laos in the coming article. If you have time, check out the picture section about Hoi An.

All the best and enjoy autumn in Europe.
Cheers,
Alex & Moni