Hoi An tour

If you have been keeping an eye on my flickr account, you'll see that we toured to Hoi An last week for a holiday. We had a leisurely, relaxing time and spent many hours with the fish and crocs in the Palm Garden Resort pool.

Flights & Such
Compared to North American airport security, the security in Hanoi airport felt pretty lax. The guards allowed Asha to be wheeled through the metal detector in her stroller after the guard gave the stroller a cursory inspection. In North America we have to juggle a wriggly Asha while collapsing the stroller and throwing it on the xray conveyor. I beeped the metal detector on the way through (didn't bother to remove my belt - the belt buckle usually triggers the airport detectors). The guard asks me to stand on a little stool while he scans with his metal detector wand. I assume the stool is to make it easier for them to scan my shoes; less bending and all. But now rather than being only a head taller than the Vietnamese, I'm 2 heads taller and he's unable to reach to scan my head and find the shiv I've hidden in my thick hair. Seriously, he only went through the motions of wanding me, didn't reproduce a beep, and didn't even pass over the belt buckle area.

While in the pre-boarding area, we had another experience that derailed our North American sense of airport security. People would just walk away and leave their bags unattended for minutes at a time! Wow! In North America and Europe, luggage unattended for this long would soon be surrounded by bomb-sniffing dogs and anxious security personnel. Anyhow we soon relaxed and started to leave our own bags to fend for themselves.

The flight from Hanoi to Danang is just over an hour and the kids were really good on the flight. We can only hope they'll be nearly as good for the next umpteen hour flight back to visit Canada. oy.

Hoi An Town

Hoi An is a very peaceful, quiet break from the noise, bustle, heat & humidity of Hanoi. Many of the downtown streets are closed to cars and even motorcycles on some days, so are very pleasant for strolling. Colourful lanterns and old architecture offer interesting sights for the eyes. Many restaurants, cafes, art galleries and handicraft shops cater to tourists. Boutiquey, but not too souveniry. In terms of the galleries and boutiques, reminds me of Bayfield, Merrickville or similar towns in Ontario.

There are many old houses and temples to tour, but we didn't subject the kids to these tours.

Everywhere we went people loved the kids. Waitresses, and even the Vietnam News hawkers want to pick up Asha, or at least touch her cheeks. They would tell Naveen how handsome he is, then tell him how much he looks like his father. Which I hope implies that I am also handsome.

Food & Yummies
When staying at a hotel resort, we tend to get trapped and eat at the hotel restaurants. The Palm Garden food was adequate but we tired of it after 3 or 4 days. Didn't help that we had lingering tummy issues (see previous post) and tried to stick to fairly bland fare.

Toward the end of the week, we forced ourselves to venture into town for meals. Should had done it days ago. A spectacular find was the Mango Rooms restaurant. At least for us parents. The food was a little too spicy for the kids who have yet to find their must-have-spicy-Indian-food-right-now! genes. Great food fusion, taste, flavours, ambience, service; we felt we were in a hip NYC restaurant.

Goda restaurant was another good find, and we enjoyed traditional Hoi An & Vietnamese food. Fresh, tasty food and good news, the kids liked it! Although the green papaya salad was too spicy for all of us. Very personable service and as a customer appreciation token, they paid for our taxi back to the Palm Garden. Thanks!

We also lunched at "Cafe des Amis" along the Hoi An waterfront. It does not stand out as much as some other restaurants, a very basic look and feel, and normally we would have passed it by, but it was a name we had recognized from the Frommer's guide. The service was very forgetful -- they forgot we ordered a bottle of water, and our food came before the gentlemen next to us who was in the restaurant long before we were -- they'd forgotten that he'd ordered his meal! We weren't sure if we should eat here because Cafe des Amis doesn't have a menu -- they only offer a seafood, meat or vegetarian set menu. The set menu apparently changes daily so it's not written down. Without seeing a written menu, we weren't sure what we would be eating. And with 2 small children, we feel much more comfortable knowing what's on the menu and whether the food is suited to their tastes. To stay, or to bail, that was the question. We decided to stay and very glad we did. Tonnes of food and very tasty -- highly recommended to anyone visiting Hoi An.

Eco-Tour
A highlight of our week in Hoi An was a fishing tour with the Hoi An Eco-Tour company. Most highly recommended if you're in the Hoi An area. The kids had a great time, lots of interesting sights, the tour guide is keen & knowledgeable, and the onboard meal was fantastic. We learned a little about the host's fishing village, heard stories about the American War, learned how to snag crabs, learned how to fish with big stationary fishing nets, learned how to paddle and ride a basket boat (coracle to you UK'ers), saw lots of local fishing vessels, and wore the pointy "non" hats.

The tour guide told us how the fishermen have to go farther and farther asea to find stocked fishing grounds. Further from home port can also be more dangerous. Some village members were caught in a typhoon off China last year. When they had not made contact for many days, the family members consulted the local fortune teller who stated the fishermen were lost at sea. The family purchased caskets to prepare for the funeral and grieving ceremonies. 5 days after the typhoon, the fishing boat limped into the village and there was much rejoicing for the dead had risen.

The four of us jumped into a basket boat with the tour captain and went looking for crabs amongst the river palms. We managed to snag 3 before Asha melted down and we had to head back to the main boat. A bit of cloth on a string on a stick; that's all it takes to snag the wee crabs. On the boat, the captain made the crabs safe for the children to play with -- that is, he bit off the tips of crab's claws. Naveen was a little reserved about touching the crabs, but Asha was not shy at all. She touched them, almost kissed one, then grabbed one and whiplashed him so hard that his 2 claws and a leg fell off. ouch.

When the other group members returned from their basket boat tour, we had a short boat ride toward the mouth of the river to try our own hand at piloting a basket boat, and to do a little fishing with a big net. I caught on fairly well to piloting the basket boat, at least better than the other tourists and the captain was clapping his hands. A figure 8 draw stroke works pretty well. Thanks to Misters Beaudette & Heginbottom for instructing me in the ways of the canoe :)

To catch little fish with a big net:

• rig big net to poles, ropes, and on-shore winch.
• drop net into water
• wait a bit
• winch net up out of the water
• boat out to the net
• using a stick, whack the underside of the net to flip the little fish over to a slit in the net
• drop the fish through the slit into your waiting basket
• repeat many times a day

Well, that's enough for this post. You probably don't want to hear about the struggles of getting 2 children to nap in a strange bedroom, or Asha viciously biting her sibling and us when she's angry (4 teeth can really pack a hurt-on). Cheers.