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).

 

Ready to cook our supper.

 

 

 Chef ngoc shows us an ear mushroom

after it's dipped in water & drained

to soften it for the spring rolls...

 

 

... and demonstrates the importance

of not wetting the rice paper wrapper excessively.

 

 

Apply the filling & roll up tightly.

 

 

 Preparing the tuna for grilled fish in banana leaf

with oyster sauce, salt & pepper.

 

 

 Getting ready to soften the banana leaf

over an open flame to make it more flexible.

 

 

Chopping the squid for the squid salad.

Hue Citadel, Dieu Monastery & Minh Tu Orphanage

Today started off with a fun breakfast with our waiter, Nam (aged 33, but looked 16) made us Vietnamese coffee (coffee with condensed milk over ice - awesome, but cloyingly sweet), Vietnamese yogurt with passion fruit (delicious) and green tea to soothe the soul & relieve the stress (not that we had any at the moment).

The Citadel is Hue's Imperial City, built by emperor Gia Long beginning in 1804 for the exclusive use of the emperor & his household. It encompasses 3 walled enclosures: the Exterior Enclosure or Citadel; the Yellow Enclosure, or Imperial City within that; and, in the very center, the Forbidden Purple City, where the Emperor actually lived.

 

Bridge to the main entrance of the Hue Citadel

 

 

Cannons just inside main entrance

 

 

Soldiers practicing their marching

(they had absolutely no rhythm)

 

 

Imperial City

 

 

Inside the Purple City

 

 

 

Barb, Barbara, Iris & Betty

 

 

As soon as Sunny announced that we had about 30 minutes of free time to explore the Citadel, Iris & I practically ran to the field where they were giving elephant rides to see if we could take advantage of the opportunity.  After finally succeeding in getting past the language barrier, and paying for the shorter ride, we were led to a stand about 8' high, where we waited with bamboo sticks (an elephant treat apparently) for Ten (our elephant - we were already on a first-name basis with him). Ten must have had excellent eyesight because no sooner had the trainer placed those sticks at the top of the stand, he was on a mission to get there quickly. So there we were, standing, totally clueless as to what the sticks were for. All of a sudden Ten's trunk, looking like one of those monsters out of the movie, Alien, came through the bars of the stand and slobbered all over Iris' pants, which unfortunately for Iris, were between the sticks & Ten's quivering, salivating trunk.

After carefully maneuvering into the wooden seat, we took off on a short loop. The photo below was taken by the old man who was the operator of the ride, and he was not the most accomplished photographer by any means. This was about the only decent photo of us that he managed to get. 

Our vegetarian lunch was at Dieu Thanh Monastery where 18 nuns followed a rigorous daily routine of prayer, chant, gardening and education. After lunch we had a wonderful Q & A with one of the nuns about her life in the monastery.

 

Dieu Thanh Monastery

 

 

Along the way to the orphanage we pulled over for a quick stop to learn how to make incense and the conical hats (non la) that are so commonly work for protection from the sun. (By the way, you see many people wearing masks - women more so than men - as a safeguard against air pollution and as protection to their face from the strong sun).

 

 

I volunteered to make some incense after Betty

did her attempt, which ended up being a very droopy glob

of incense that would have produced a major fire (ha ha)

 

If I could have managed to get one of these
in my suitcase,I would have loved to use it
at the beach and in the yard down in Florida.

  

 

At 4 PM we visited Minh Tu Orphanage, currently home to 170 children from newborns to a 23 year old. After a Q & A with Minh Tu, we visited with the children (it was a mad house - we just couldn't imagine doing their job with a very small staff of 8 nuns & 16 lay workers, some parttime & some full time). The kids were lively and very loving as children tend to be.

 

 

 Our Q & A with Minh Tu,

the nun who founded the orphanage.

 

 

This little girl was a hoot!

She would run to anyone with a camera,

get very close to your lens, and flash the

peace sign with both hands.

I loved her and she reminded me of myself as a child.

 

 

 I don't know what's up with the peace signs,

but it seems to be the first thing people do

when you get ready to photograph them.

 

 

 

This very busy day ended with dinner at Phuoc Thanh restaurant, then drinks and some dancing at a neighborhood bar. Right after we arrived at the bar, the young gals working there pulled enough small tables together so we could sit with each other. Then they came out with a tray of shot glasses containing a cocktail similar to a pina colada. We each took a glass, proposed a toast, then ordered drinks for the happy hour already in progress. Iris & I ordered mojitos, but Gloria was the clear winner with her "bucket drink" with 4 straws - which she didn't even offer to share. I think it was the same drink we had in the shot glasses. 

 

 

Sunny, our trip leader,

lines up a shot during his

pool game at the bar.

 

Gloria and her bucket drink.

Hue

Up very early for the 4 hour return drive to the Hanoi Airport for our departure to Hue (and hopefully warmer weather). The flight was less than an hour so we only received bottled water before landing. Then off to claim our luggage & meet our new driver Hai (pronounced hi) - needless to say we had a lot of fun greeting him - Hi Hai! (easy to remember). All these drivers deserve medals for their ability to negotiate this crazy traffic of scooters, bicycles, rickshaws, cars, and local buses who for some reason always lay on their horns when passing tourist buses. (too much testosterone).
 
Hue was once Vietnam's Imperial City and later the country's capital under the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945).

We finally arrive at our hotel, the Camellia Hotel - absolutely gorgeous with dark wood and beautiful furnishings. After settling in our rooms we took the elevator to the 11th floor for lunch. Our waiter guided us to the special "outdoor seating" in the Love Cafe - hilarious because it was enclosed and any attempt at dining alfresco would have resulted in death from falling 11 stories to the concrete sidewalk below. Lunch consisted of crab + asparagus soup for me (crab + corn soup for the others at my table) and spring rolls all around. We thought we were going to get 2-4 spring rolls like at home, but the dinner plate must have had at least 15-20 small spring rolls on it (and, I ate every one of them on my plate). We added 2 more local beers to our checklist: Huda and Festival (Huda was the clear favorite).

Time to work off lunch with a short walk to the pier to catch our dragon boat cruise down the Txubon River. Very relaxing time and lots of commerce on board with some of our group purchasing slacks, T-shirts & bags from the very persistent Vietnamese women on board.

 

The dragon boat colorful bow.

 

 

 

Further down the river was the Thien Mieu Pagoda, constructed beginning in 1601. It is often called the symbol of Hue and is one of the oldest & loveliest religious structures in Vietnam. Each of its 7 tiers is dedicated to one of the human forms taken by Buddha or the 7 steps to enlightenment.

 

 

 

 

The last activity for the day was a visit to the water puppet theater. It was pretty dark inside and most of the puppet acts involved frantic movement - making it very challenging to take photos that weren't blurry.  The puppets are constructed with lightweight wood like balsa then lacquered in incredible detail - unfortunately only lasting about a year because they are in the water so much over the course of several shows.

 

 

A husband & his wife try to keep their 
herd of ducks safe from a fox. 

 

 

 Boat racing is a traditional activity.

 

 

The dance of the immortals

during the Emperor's birthday festival.

 

 

The puppeteers who controlled the

characters from behind the green curtain.