Hoi An, and some occasional sun

Da Nang, January 12, 2025--A morning and afternoon of sight-seeing, and a lunch- time lesson, where, amazingly, John actually learned a new cooking technique!

We bussed into Hoi An, a really cute, but quite touristy town, with an historic center where you even have to pay to enter ON FOOT!  Once in, there are streets of shops, but temples and antique homes, and a really attractive riverfront.  Our guide, Chung, walked us through the town explaining very well the historic value of Hoi An, a major port, even before French times when it was named Touraine.   We had the pleasure of visiting an old home, about three hundred years old, a temple which had an interesting boat lined with tea pots, and a silk factory with its own silk worms. Then we went shopping.

Ben acquired an attractive pair of pull on pants, while John invested in two custom-made cotton sports shirts.  They will all arrive tomorrow at lunch time, measured to fit.  John also bought a water buffalo belt with a very attractive simple buckle and stitched sides.

The main event, though, was the cooking class.  Taught by Miss Vy at a huge restaurant in the old town section, we learned how to make cold spring rolls--a technique John had never mastered, marinate chicken thighs in a variety of spices--omewhat different from Thai and Chinese techniques, and, then make a green mango salad.

John never used green mangoes in a salad before.  The technique is the peel the mango and then slice the somewhat hard fruit into slivers about two inchese long (5 cm) and a quarter-inch (40 mm) across.  Mixed with a variety of spices this gives a crunchy body to the salad.  That would be lost if the mango were ripe.  Miss Vy, about 30, I would think, has been teaching this technique with a fine sense of the theatrical apparently for quite some time.  

Now we are resting.  Nothing going on till about 10:30 tomorrow morning.  Books to read, waves to hear in the background for John and sand for Ben to kick around on the beach.  It's too cold to swim 68F, 20C, and the ocean currents are too strong to swim out in the South China Sea.