Hoi An - Spinning Boats & A Cooking Class

December 8^th, 2024

At 8 am we were picked up for our half day tour which included a ride on a basket boat and a cooking class.  Our first stop was at the local market to pick up some vegetables for the class.  There were two other couples in our group, a married couple in their 40s, Rob and Lindsay from Scotland, and an Aussie couple in their early 20s, Sarah and Jack.

 

Our guide and chef, Hai Hi, led us around the covered stalls, gathering various items and occasionally explaining some spices or vegetables that may be foreign to us (literally).  Hai had a nice smile, good energy and a sense of humour…it looked like it was going to be a fun morning.

Our tour guide Hai Hi explaining what we are buying in the local food market.

I asked what this was...can't remember the answer.

We've got the goods!

Back in the van, we drove about 15 minutes to a more rural area, to a spot by an inlet.  The first activity was a paddle on a “basket boat”, a round shaped human powered vessel.  Naomi and I went on one of these back around 2011 in Hampi, India and they are strange boats indeed.

It's round-boat time.

Why would you want a round boat?!?  It doesn’t seem very efficient for plying through the water…  Well, in the past, when the French arrived in Vietnam and began laying taxes on the ownership of boats.  Most of the poor Vietnamese fishermen could not afford to pay the taxes, so they came up with a new type of boat: the “Thung Chai”. The boat is made of bamboo in the shape of a basket and for some strange reason, it could not be counted as a boat.

Each couple hopped in a boat with a local guide.  Our guy was named Lek, probably in his early 60s, and he was a lot of fun with good energy and also a good sense of humour even though his English was minimal.  We started rowing into the wind on the main inlet but then took a narrow side channel that was sheltered thanks to some type of palm tree lining the shores.

Our boatman, Lek.

Starting our tour.

The hats just make you want to pull this face...

Baby Shark...do-do-do-doo...

The Scots, Rob and Lindsay, who were part of our group.

I felt like I was back in a production of the Mikado (which I was in during high school).

Naomi trying to look like a local.

Lek pulled out a small fishing rod, a stick really, with a tiny bit of bait on the end of the line.  He was trying to catch little crabs that were hiding at the base of the trees by the water…but he was unsuccessful.

Great pic of Lek...even though he hardly spoke English, he made us laugh hysterically.

This channel was a nice shelter from the wind.

We came into a bigger area where there were 30-40 other round boats, most of them with tourists, but a few had a local with massive speaker which was blaring music.  It seemed as though we had just missed some kind of show.  Hai had told us earlier that we could get on another boat and get spun around if we wanted.  Our group gathered around a solo rower in a boat who did just that, putting on a performance, and did he ever get the boat moving!

The music man:

Gangnam Style!

An expert paddler showing his skills.

After his little show, the offer was put out as to whether one of us would like to join him.  I immediately put up my hand and next thing I knew, I was in his boat receiving instructions on where to hold on and what not to do.  He started paddling and wow, did I ever start feeling some G-forces.  The boat not only spun but also bobbed up and down, so I felt like I was on a bucking horse in a rodeo…it was quite the ride!  I was definitely a bit dizzy afterwards.

My turn to join in on the action.

I figured I might as well help a bit.

Back on our boat with Naomi and Lek, we started to head back down the main inlet, thankfully with the wind this time.  I thought the tour was over as we could see our dock, but there was one more attraction to check out.  A fisherman was standing at the bow of his small boat with a fishing net in his hand.  With great skill, he chucked the net into the water, which spread out like a huge spider web as it flew through the air.  It was impressive.

The fisherman.

Showing us how it is done.

What an awesome toss!

I figured that he was doing this for tips, so I showed some money to Lek and motioned that it was for the fisherman, so he rowed us over to his boat.  The money was passed over to him, but then he stuck out his hand to me to help me climb aboard.  I suddenly realized that I was going to get a chance to throw the net…in front of about 10 basket boats with tourists watching. 

 

Getting prepped, and some pointers.

 My attempt.

Pulling the net back in.

After the fisherman placed the net strategically in my hands, with some of it resting between each finger of my left hand, he gave some final instructions, and I gave it a go and chucked it.  I felt like I could have done better if I had been a bit more energetic with my toss but from the reaction of the tourists, I guess I did alright, and it was fun to give it a try.

Back on land, we met up with Hai and headed off to our cooking class.  It turned out that it was the house of Hai’s brother which had a covered outdoor area with a kitchen (for the ladies cleaning up after us), a prep area where we would do our magic, some propane stove tops and some chairs and tables to eat our spoils afterwards.

 

Our cooking setup.

We were going to make four dishes:  Green Papaya Salad, Hoi An Deep-Fry Spring Rolls, Banh Xeo (rice pancake) and Braised Chicken in Clay-Pot.  We started off with peeling carrots and papaya for the salad and carrots and sweet potato for the spring rolls.  We prepared a marinading sauce for the chicken and the spring rolls.

Our crew.  From left to right, Jack and Sarah from Australia, us, and Lindsay and Rob from Scotland.

Ready to cook!

Chef Hai, who took a page out of Gordon Ramsay’s book and was often saying “Chef, yes chef” or “Yes sous chef” and it was a bit contagious, it was fun to say it back to him.  After trying a bit of our salad, he showed us the proper technique to rolling spring rolls, which was a bit tricky.  After they were prepped, we cooked and ate them and I have to admit, they were pretty yummy!

"Yes Chef!"

Paying attention to Chef Hai.

He was a skilled chef indeed.

Not sure what the puffed out chest was about...but he did it a few times.

Preparing the chicken to be marinaded.

A bunch of busy bees.

Top chef showing us how to roll a spring roll.

Our decent, but slightly sad results...they still tasted great!

Time to cook them...

Yummy!

We cooked the braised chicken and rice pancakes and then enjoyed our feast…it was a lot of food.  The other two couples, Team Scotland and Team Australia, managed to finish their food but Team Israel/Canada struggled.  It was all super tasty though.

Naomi making her pancake.

Flambaeing time by the master.

My attempt.

Not sure what I'm doing with my chopsticks here...but I felt it.  It's good to be a chef!

Ready to eat our spoils.

Thanks Chef!

It was all finished before noon and I think all six of us couldn’t believe how stuffed we were this early in the day.  We headed back into Hoi An and it turned into a lazy few hours for me and Naomi.  Luckily the only plans for the afternoon were to do a bit of a photoshoot with Naomi and her Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese outfit she purchased…but that requires it’s own post as this one is long enough!