Another delicious buffet breakfast with lots of fruit and an interesting dish labelled – fish with lemongrass. The lightly battered fish was wrapped around a twig of lemongrass. The lemongrass taste was in the fish but the texture of the fish was unlike any fish I have eaten. It was more like calamari.
We met in front of the hotel at 8 am ready to mount bicycles and head out for a countryside trek. Our guide was able to avoid most of the busier streets and led us down quiet streets and alleyways. It wasn’t long until we were riding along beside rice fields. Where we are staying in Hoi An is a major tourist centre so it is nice to get away from all the hubbub. What we all enjoyed about the bike trip was that it took you into areas where the regular Hoi An people live. We saw families heading off to work and school, regular shopkeepers opening up for the day, farmers out in the fields hoeing and watering their crops, fishermen laying their nets. We checked out a place where lotus plants were growing and our guide and Bun told us of the uses of the various parts of the plant. We saw snails and their eggs. We checked out birds – egrets, a myna bird, a cormorant, some other white and brown bird I have to try to identify. We visited an organic herb farm and its 96 year old owner. We checked out a home-grown rice wine and banana wine operation complete with an excellent tasting. Back home in Kaladar he would have been the local bootlegger. We stopped for a banana pancake snack and drinks by the riverside and then were loaded into a number of little basket boats for a sashay out among the water palms. A few of us got to help paddle and played bumper boats with each other. Once back on shore we mounted up and pedalled off to meet up with a ferry that took us and our bikes up-river back to the old section of Hoi An. Off the ferry, back onto our bikes and we were soon back to the hotel ready for a shower and/or swim in the pool.
Some time later I headed back into the UNESCO Heritage site to watch the theatre presentation I had missed yesterday. I’m really glad I did that for a number of reasons: 1) the place was air-conditioned and I had heated up yet again. 2) there were only two other people when I first got there and we started talking. It turns out the young woman was from Uxbridge, had been taught by Derrick Connolly (a canoeing buddy) and loved him. What a small world! 3) The show was really cool with lots of music and dancing and beautiful costumes.
We finished off the evening at The Noodle House where I tried the Cao Lau style noodle. It is more like fettuccine and the pork dish was very tasty. There are many different styles of noodles ranging from the soft mushy (used in pho), bun (vermicelli style) through various widths right to the flat crepe style.
Tomorrow we head for Ho Chi Minh City by plane so I will have to organize my things.