Day 12: Hoi An

The cyclo drivers (bicycled rickshaw) await the daily flood of tourists. They don't actually have horns or bells so they yell "beep beep!" as they maneuver down the streets. We hurry through the waking village for our cooking class that starts at 8am.

Our half day cooking class at the Red Bridge Cooking School starts with a tour of Hoi An's Central Market and an introduction to the local produce.

Below: Baskets of fresh noodles.

Sandals in a fish market....not the best idea.

Above: Fresh fish and fish paste cakes.

Below: These crabby fellows are bound with banana leaves. They are sold by weight, so the extra leaf bindings are actually making them more expensive.

From the market, we're transported to the cooking school down the river by boat. Our first dish is a seafood salad served in a pineapple. Our snarky chef instructor is hilarious and helps us create some delicious samples.

Next, we make fresh rice paper rolls with shrimp. I'm amazed by how easy it was to make the rice paper from scratch! (with the right set-up that is, I tried it when I got home and failed miserably) Simply spread rice paste (white rice and water soaked overnight and blended) on a cotton cloth stretched over a boiling pot of water. Put the lid over it and steam for 1 min. and voila! Filled with shrimp and vegetables, it's delicious!

Next we try Hoi An Pancakes (Banh Xeo) with shrimp, pork and bean sprouts. After the pancake is fried, it's wrapped in a dry rice paper, rolled and dipped in peanut sauce.

Our last dish, also our lunch, was Vietnamese eggplant in clay pot. Behold my cutting skills! The vegetables were cooked in a clay pot with lemongrass, tumeric, chillis and fish sauce. While we wait for the dish to cook, we try our hand at some decorative vegetable cutting.

On our way back, we encounter a couple fishing who demonstrate their net throwing skills.

We rush back to our hotel where a driver will transport us to Hue. It's a 2.5 hr. drive through the Hai Van mountain pass and our driver pulls over for us to see the panoramic Lang Co beach and lagoon. We also pass through the Hai Van Tunnel, the longest tunnel in Southeast Asia, just over 6 km.

In our rush to leave Hoi An, we just have enough time to grab out clean laundry washed at the hotel, but they've thrown our bags in the trunk of the car, so we have no time to pack our laundry in with our luggage. Our laundry is also given back to us folded neatly in clear plastic bags. So this made for a slightly awkward check-in at the hotel in Hue which has a fancy looking lobby. They offer us juice as we stand holding clear bags of underwear and socks (clean though!) and our grubby backpacks.

© Amy Lee 2013