April 30, 2023
Hoi an is such a gorgeous little city. I’ve spent the past two days exploring and wandering around really getting my fill of the architecture, colors, and food. Hoi An is known for their lanterns and tailoring specifically, and while I haven’t experienced those things yet I’m looking forward to crossing them off my list.
Today I signed up for a cooking class. We were scheduled to leave around 1:30 so I spent my morning wandering through the city and seeing everything. I love to take time to just roam when I am traveling, especially when I have an extended period of time in a city. After grabbing a Bahn Mi and a coconut coffee I made my way back to the hostel to head to the cooking class.
To start the class, we were taken to a local market where the instructor showed us different foods and seasonings that are typical in Vietnamese cooking. From here, we went to the restaurant a bit out of town where we would be cooking. We made Hoi An spring rolls, Rice pancakes, chicken papaya salad, and a fish dish in a clay pot. The instructor walked us through how to prepare each dish and we all worked at our individual stations putting our meals together. It was a fun and involved process. As someone who already loves to cook, I found it fairly simple but absolutely worth it. All the food turned out phenomenal and we were stuffed to the brim.
After the class, we were taken to go in an authentic Vietnamese basket boat ride. This is a boat that looks like a cereal bowl and the guide rows. It involved a lot of spinning and more gagnam style singing than I’d heard in quite some time. We got to try our hand at crab fishing which proved to be much tricker than anticipated because the crabs were strong and sneaky. It was one of the experiences I definitely wanted to have in Hoi An so I loved that it was combined with the cooking class. After we wrapped up here we went back to the hostel just in time for the free drinks and happy hour deals. We spent the night doing Karaoke and dancing before heading out into town and having a really lovely night. I can’t wait to see what else Hoi An holds.
