Leisure time in Hoi An

Before we went to bed that night, Chrissy noticed that there was a cooking class available for the guests of the hotel. The problem is that it took place at the same time as our scheduled walking tour in the morning. When Binh arrived in the morning, she told him that she wanted to take a cooking class. She had found another that cooked our dinner. Binh said he would check and see if there were others while we walked on the tour that morning.

The tour was interesting primarily for the how quaint the town is. The tallest building may be three stories tall. Most of the homes and shops are only two stories. Again, every ground floor is another store with people living above. There is a main market place where groceries are on display. This day we walked by the market and to an old temple. This temple only varied in that it was dedicated to the god in command of money and business. In each of the shops we had visited in Viet Nam they all had a small shrine on the floor. These shrines housed a personal residence for this god.

One of our stops was an old house built along the river. This is a traditional house from the colonial period with heavy Japanese and Chinese influences. What impressed me most was the flood marks inside one of the halls of the house. Yearly, in November, December and January, Hoi An is hit with floods. This past year the floods were some of the worst that they had experienced rising into the house to just beneath the beams supporting the second floor. As we continued to walk through town, I tried to imagine the high water mark on the buildings throughout town. There isn’t much slope down to the river, so I am certain that most of the town floods.

Binh’s tour that day was only in the morning. Before he left though he had found a restaurant that would give us a personal cooking class. That afternoon we were able to spend at the edge of the pool. We returned to the restaurant and were guided to the back. It was actually a bar that faced the river, but it was empty except for us. The chef came out and taught us how to prepare spring rolls, soups and stir fried tofu with eggplant.

The highlight of the evening was our service and staff. I don’t think that Chrissy or I got used to the personal service we have received in our travels in Viet Nam. Every dinner we have had our own waitress standing by waiting for us to express what our next wish would be. In this restaurant we had two girls, a chef and another waiter. At times all of them would be standing by.

At the end of our dinner, our waiter began visiting with us. “Do you have daughters?” he started with.

We replied that we had two. “Can I be your son-in-law?” he moved quickly and got to the point.

Since Jessica has a boyfriend and Whittney only claims to be engaged, I knew right away that Whittney was the girl for him. I promised her to him right away.

Our waiter told us he is 20 years old. He has spent his entire life, save two years in Da Nang while in the Army, living with his family on the small island across the river from Hoi An. Da Nang is only 30 kilometers from Hoi An. He has only a sixth grade education, but spoke English very well. He teaches himself English and practices with tourist and the chef who learned English in Australia. He told us that every year the floods come and get his house, but it wasn’t a problem, because he can rebuild or remake anything that he looses in the river. He said that Hoi An has been fortunate that he cannot remember anyone dieing in any floods in his lifetime.

At one point I opened my wallet. I think I was looking for a picture of Whittney to show him. He noticed the wallet with Yen. He asked to see one of the 1000-yen bills. I handed it to him and he admired it. He took out his wallet and showed me currency from Egypt and other countries. “May I keep this?” he asked. It was ten bucks. I had to think about it. “I promise you that if you ever come back here, I will still have this bill in my wallet.”

I didn’t say yes right away. I knew I was going to give it to him, but I made him promise me that he would send me a postcard or a letter when we return to the states. Thinking about it now, I honestly hope that postage will not be too much for him to spend on a stamp. The average wage in most of Viet Nam, according to one of our guides is about $500.00 a year. I got his address and told him I would send him a card from the states.