Ancient Town, cooking class.

On a day when we were supposed to have clear skies, we have sudden deluge, and today when they are annonucing rain off and on, blue skies and toasty sun. Oh Hoi An, why do you confuse me so?! As a result, we postponed our trip to the My Son Sanctuary in the hope that we could visit inside some of the houses of the Old Town, giving us refuge from the rain, but it was all for naught, and instead, we were jumping from shade patch to shade patch! But onwards!
Since the walk to town from our little garden oasis is long and tedious, we opt for borrowing bikes instead, to get us at least part of the way to town. The idea is to park on the outskirt of the old town and then walk the rest. We chain up our bikes to, well, each other, like everyone else is doing, and then adventure into the fruit and vegetable market. Mario finally finds his elusive tiny mandarins that we enjoyed so much at Tomodachi house, and I luck out with a tiny bowl of Pho on a keychain that will be the latest addition to our Christmas tree.
Next up, we procure our tickets to enter the Ancient Town, the historic center of Hoi An, the base for the Japanese merchants and location of houses and communal buildings dating as far back at the 1500s. First, though, we have a coffee and plan our attack, as the old town ticket only gets you into a maximum of 5 locations. However, the lure of beautiful shrines calls us from the road, and it isn't long before we throw out all our plans and just go with our gut. I'd say we got 3 out of 4 spot on.

Our best discovery comes during our visit to the Cam Pho Communal House, with roots deep in Japanese culture. We arrive just in time to participate in a traditional green tea ceremony, just the like the ones we experienced in Japan! We kneel on cushions, are presented with small, crumble cakes and cups of matcha that we have to drink a certain wait, wipe the rim, examine the cup, drink from again...it's all very ceremonial and people come in and take pictures. We are now the focus of somebody's vacation photos!

Given that last night was New Year's Eve, most of the town is just starting to wake up sometime around 2 pm. Shops begin to fill up, crowds get fuller, and the bicycle taxis make convoys as they work their way through the pedestrian streets, in batches of 10 and 20 at a time. We try not to get run over!

This evening, after a little shopping and haggling(perhaps successfully - one girl seemed particularly unhappy with us!), we head to Hai Cafe for a cooking class/dinner! Not wanting to take up an entire day visiting the market, riding in bamboo boats on the river, etc., that most day classes offer in addition to cooking, I researched evening classes, and discovered this one. Though a little more on the demonstration side than a complete hands-on class, we still have plenty of prepping and chopping to do, flavorings to pound, fish to dress and spring rolls to, well, roll. Fifteen of us sat around 2 communal tables and listened as our teacher, chef Chinh, a petite yet feisty woman, taught us the secrets to Vietnamese flavour. She hounded the men, and loves anyone who eats everything, as you can imagine catering to all diets is getting more and more complicated.
I love taking cooking classes abroad, as we are always surrounded by like-minded people. I mean, of course you're going to take a class if you love food, right? And everyone also talks about their travels in Vietnam, either from experience, or in search of suggestions from those WITH the experience. We strike up conversation with our fellow cooks, from Germany, from LA, but particularly with the couple next to us who happen to be from Estonia. They remark that we are unfazed when they state their home - in their experience, either people are surprised, or confused by this answer. We talk of their country, its natural beauty and open invitation to camp, and how they prefer being associated with the Scandinavian culture, rather than the Baltic. Now go tell that to all of your friends - 1.2 million Estonians will thank you when you next remark how they are very Scandinavian.
After preparing our 3 dishes, the restaurant's chefs grilled beef and fried our spring rolls, and we all sat down again to a wonderful meal. We began with a bamboo basket filled with a spicy fresh salad, topped with grilled beef and served with shrimp chips. Afterwards, crispy spring rolls, stuffed with noodles, shrimp and wood-ear mushrooms. We sampled two Hoi An specialties: White rose, a soft, steamed rice paper dumpling, and fried wonton, topped with a tangy tomato-mango salsa. Finally, we enjoyed our sea bass, wrapped in lemongrass, chili and garlic, then banana leaves, and grilled to perfection, served with a side of sauteed morning glory leaves. Yum, yum, YUM! Of course, everyone was stuffed by the end of the class, and we all basically rolled back to our hotels. Some a little more literally, as we found our bikes right where we left them, and rode back. Phew.