Inside Vietnam & Angkor Wat, Cambodia: China Beach, Hoi An & Cooking for your Supper

Hue to Da Nang to Hoi An
On the road again...4 1/2 hrs. to Hoi An

Quick stop at the Tri An Temple to visit with an older couple who continue to care for the Temple, following the lead of their family elders.

On our way to China Beach, we stopped at a local market where we were put on teams, given a Vietnamese word for a mystery food item, and given 30 minutes and 10,000 VND (50 cents US) to find that item, purchase it, & bring it to Sunny, our trip leader, on the bus. We felt like we were in The Amazing Race (ha ha) Our item ended up being tomatoes (using a Vietnamese word that sounded like gotcha), & we had no trouble with remembering the Vietnamese word or its correct pronunciation.

qua ca chua = tomatoes

Butchering the meat.

A scooter rider checks over

the ground beef with a seller.

Extensive seafood section.

Photo ops @ China Beach (My Khe beach). The beach sand felt absolutely wonderful on our incredibly swollen feet (I think it's mostly the combined result of sitting on so many planes & buses and eating too much sodium). We waded into the wonderful water up to our knees, just so we could say we went swimming at China Beach (ha ha)

Iris does the "swim" at China Beach (NOT).

Once we arrived at Hoi An, we were served a multi-course lunch at Family Hoian restaurant before exploring the ancient town and the Japanese Bridge. I found my perfect special souvenir at the embroidery print shop, a gorgeous print of the female street seller - expensive, but worth every penny. The ladies working in the shop were fantastic and very helpful (especially because so many of us did make purchases). If money was no object, I would have purchased another 3 prints that I really loved.

Working on an embroidery print from a photo.

Stretching the material for the embroidered print.

Our hotel, the Glory Hotel, was awesome. The room safe was a challenge to operate at first, the pool was incredible & the laundry service was very affordable. (Although paying over $20 for a bottle of Jacob's Creek Shiraz/Cabernet was a bit much-should have stuck to the beer).

Our cooking demonstration and interactive dinner at Viettown Restaurant was hilarious and so much fun, thanks to our fantastic chef, Thai ngoc Nguyen. He was so entertaining as he walked us through the process of making spring rolls, grilled fish in banana leaf and squid salad. We all rolled the spring rolls - which Nancy & I fried in peanut oil (with chef ngoc at our side), and Iris & Rodney seasoned the fish, while all of us softened the banana leaf over the oven burner flame (much faster than soaking it several hours).