We left the Le Residence in Hue at a reasonable hour on Thursday the 22nd. We’re more or less at the halfway point in our journey with Hoi An left in Vietnam, and then Cambodia and Thailand still in front of us.
First stop today was an oyster farming village. We stopped at a little restaurant in town for oysters – raw (super muddy) and grilled (super delicious). We had quite an audience.
Tien promised an “experience” next, and man did he deliver. We took a banana boat out to where the fishermen work and live during the season.
The first structure below manages the nets and oyster cages. The second is where the fisherman lives all season. (They pull nets once an hour all night and sleep during the day.)
Hien the driver insisted on a photo shoot. She’s an interesting character and a very rare female driver. Hien does not eat meat and we’re told she does NOT like men. Well, she sure does likes JuJu.
The fisherman had us clamber up into his work shop and experience one round of checking the nets. (Juju had some regrets about her choice of wardrobe.)
Hauling a 50 foot square net into the air with a hand crank? This was every bit as hard as it looks. We caught two tiny crabs and a guppy.
We were then invited into Quoc’s home on stilts where his mother cooked us (yet another) amazing meal. Big hugger this Mom and our host really appreciate a gift from our home.
We passed through Danang next and stopped down a tiny backroad to a house where they make (and export!) fish sauce. They basically soaked tiny anchovies in salt for 6 months to a year until they dissolve. Strain, bottle and sell. The aroma, which we picked up from two blocks away, was….special.
After a mandatory photo op on Danang Beach (our guide Tien can be a bit of a bully)…
… we arrived in Hoi An. It’s a beautiful coastal city, a tourist Mecca and Asia’s center of “hot-tailoring.” You can get a suit in a day. The hotel Anantara is beautiful.
We took a sunset launch into town for dinner (after our captain went diving semi-naked to untangle a rope from the prop). Then we finished the night with Monique and Sophie, our two new Aussie friends.
Mac and Juju explore Southeast Asia 