Hoi An - City of Lanterns

Lanterns everywhere,,,,,  Beautiful!

Traveling for such an extended period of time, you often look forward to locations where you will be parked for more than 2-3 nights.  I programmed several one-week locations and accommodations where I thought we might like to just chill and relax.  Hoi An was one such place.  We loved it here at Hoi An Holiday Villas!  We relaxed by the pool many days conversing with the other guests (many come back to this guest house every year), did a cooking class (best ever- everything was delicious!), had a massage (never enough, and at $11/hour, why not?) and pedicure.  Had some dresses and shirts custom-made (Hoi An is known for its custom tailored clothing and shoes), and biked to the beach and through rice fields (carefully avoiding the water buffalo roaming freely in the fields). 

biking through the rice fields

Hoi An Holiday Villa

Outdoor Breakfast Room

Pho...it's whats for Breakfast!

Each evening we strolled into the Old Town walking along the pedestrian streets, with their charming lanterns lit in a multitude of colors, lined with shops, coffee houses, restaurants, row boats, and baskets filled with flowers and candles floating in the river (a fire hazard waiting to happen!).  Touristy, yes, but oh so beautiful.  Hoi An is definitely a place I want to return to....maybe to have a dress made for Arik and Charlotte's Wedding next year????


Cooking Class experience: first, a walk around the local market to buy the required ingredients.  Meat (OMG, the health inspectors in the U.S. would have a heart attack!), and fresh prawns.  Also purchased fresh herbs, fruits, and veggies.  We then took our ingredients onto a longboat for the trip down river to an island where the cooking class kitchen was located.  Once at the class, we ground rice to extract the milk to make the rice pancakes.  Then, it was several hours of cooking and eating!

the meat market	fresh prawns	making rice milk
our jungle cooking class kitchen	Goi Cuon - fresh spring rolls with pork and shrimp with peanut dipping sauce	Banh Xeo - rice crepe filled with pork and shrimp, bean sprouts, green onion.  Nuoc Cham Sauce (fish sauce, garlic, chili, lime, and sugar)
Bun Bo Nam Bo - Herb salad with sauteed beef and rice vermicelli, topped with roasted peanuts and warm beef jus vinaigrette		Pho Bo Ha Noi - the famous Vietnamese Pho beef soup infused with beef bones, cinnamon, ginger, and star anise

Scenes around Hoi An............

local produce for sale	Riverfront	in Old Town
the street are not just for cars, scooters, bikes, and pedestrians.....on the alley where our hotel was located	Riverfront in Old Town with baskets of flowers and candles floating in the river	Old Town Chinese Bridge over canal

Vacation week in Hoi An- resting, eating, cooking, socializing, shopping...........