A placed called Streets is our first foray, another fine restaurant that works with troubled youths living on the streets in Vietnam and providing them with cooking and serving skills they can use for life. The food in the restaurant is top notch. We sample the fresh spring rolls and a delicious mango salad.
Tootling over to Ms. Ly's for dinner, we order a bottle of Vietnamese red (still needs a little vintage work there, but it is somewhat drinkable) and then scarf down the very best cao lau (noodles, bean sprouts, shrimps), fried wontons, white rose (a shrimp rice dumpling) and an fabulously flavourful dish consisting of a banana leaf wrapped steamed fish with a mildly spicy herb, lemongrass and tomato marinade. The chop sticks were battling for that one... So good is Ms. Ly's for taste and authenticity, we go back again on our last night and order pretty much the same dishes. It is worth several repeat visits and we would if we could.
The Blue Dragon down by the waterfront donates a portion of their proceeds to helping less fortunate children in Vietnam and their wonton soup and wrap and rolls (rice paper wraps in which you stuff lettuce, shrimps, tomato, mint, bean sprouts and then dip it in peanut sauce) are outstanding. And why not stop in down the street at Hong Phuc (pronounced fook, people..) and try another variation on the Hoi An cuisine? Here, the banana wrapped fish is done in a zesty lemon sauce and it does not disappoint.
Did we do anything else in Hoi An besides eat, you might wonder? We did take a few breaks to walk about the town. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hoi An is a quaint Vietnamese town with Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and European influences. Although, it is filled with lane after lane of touristy shops with 'Made in Vietnam/China' kitchy faux art and items and more white folk than we've seen since a Pottery Barn sale, it still manages to win us over.
Maybe it's all the good food or the laid back vibe, the colourful photo ops combined with tons of great places to bike around. There are traditional Asian storefronts, ancient bridges and buildings, easy access over to the "islands", and a bustling market.
If you want to have something tailored, like a robe or jacket, this is the place as fast working tailor shops are abundant and will do the work cheaply. Hoi An is ideal for tourists who like to shop and who want a little "western in their eastern" which is why they probably all hang out here. I call it "Vietnam By The Lake." All that's missing are the B&B's, wineries, horse and carriage rides and, oh yeah, the Falls!
That said, there is plenty to discover in amongst the tourist traps and we spend more than a few hours wandering the streets and stopping in the places. The weather since our arrival in Vietnam has not been so cooperative. It's warm, but the warmth also comes with gray skies, misty rain and sometimes downright downpours.
But there is enough precipitation stoppage time to get out on the bikes ($1 for the whole day!) and ride around the town (watch out for the crazy beeping scooters!) and then down to the beach only a short distance away and gaze out at the waves crashing in from the South China sea.
Cruising around on the bikes is the best way to check out life in Vietnam. It's leisurely and allows us to stop whenever and wherever we like. We start out with a route planned, but soon we're lost, going too far past our turn. Oh well. We'll just ask a local. "Hoi An? Hoi An?" I don't think we're saying it right, but a kindly lady gets the gist, climbs down off her bike with babe in arms and draws us a map on the ground with a stick. Eventually, we get back on the road into town. In all, we figure we wound up biking around 30km (there is only one gear on the bikes here folks!), but having missed one area we wanted to see, we decide to rent the $1 bikes again the next day. This time we take a different road and end up in the rice paddies where our new fast friend the rice farmer gives us an impromptu tour of his crop and lets us plant the rice. Heck, we even get to don the rice paddie hattie.
"No whap whap chop chop Vietnam rice," he says which we quickly deduce means the white cranes in the rice paddies don't eat the rice, but the snails. So obvious! We ride on and discover the renowned Hoi An herb gardens. It is peaceful coasting through the lanes, taking in the gardens, watching the locals enjoying Sundays in their homes, having the children call out "Hello, hello, hello?" and wave at us excitedly. We both feel very happy and privileged to have this experience.
So...other than eating and biking what did we do in Hoi An? Well, we bought some art. Okay, THREE pieces of art. Strolling down one of the lanes, scanning the shops and not finding anything too inspiring, I suggested (with mild frustration) that we turn back and go somewhere else. "Let's just go on a little further," says Jenn.
Apparently, her finely tuned art senses are tingling for we stumble upon the studio and gallery of Phan Thanh Mihn, a breathtakingly original Vietnamese painter. Unlike the other works on display in the town, which are mostly reproduced prints, Phan creates original contemporary works and within minutes of scouring his gallery, we begin to realize just how unique and fantastic they are. Several pieces call to us right away. We even have the chance to go upstairs to his studio and see him working on his latest piece. "It is hard to sell my work,' Phan tells us in broken English. He points to the shop across the street selling generic lacquered prints. "That is what people buy."
Maybe it was this lucky itsy bitsy spider behind one of the canvasses telling us this was our special Vietnam find?!?
It's bright, emotional, primitive and yet elegant work, with impressionist and cubist influences. We see six, eight, ten, twelve pieces we would buy in a heartbeat and only when we begin asking Phan about the prices, do we realize WE COULD CONCEIVABLY AFFORD ALL TWELVE!
It's a monumental find. Overwhelmed, we have to excuse ourselves to go and have a coffee and regroup. We return the next day in the drizzling rain and go to work, pulling out all the canvasses and trying to figure out how we're going to get them home. In the end, we settle on two. There is a third we love, but we realize that even though the art is affordable, we might be letting things get out of hand. Only when we have our two purchases off the frames and rolled up for carrying does Phan tell us that if we want the third, he will give it to us for a very reduced price.
Are you kidding? Recovering from our stunned stupor, we jump at the opportunity. Three large pieces for less than what we would pay for even one back in Canada! We are jubilant and Phan is also very happy as the money will go a long way towards feeding his family and stocking him up with canvas and paint for the next year. The other galleries he shows his work in (here in Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh, and in the U.K.) only give him a small percentage of the sales, so we are thrilled that everything we are paying him goes directly into his pocket.
Now, how to get the artwork home...?
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