Village idyll

Our last day in Hoi An starts with a beautiful sunrise - it's peeking directly into our room and we wake up at 6 am - no typo!!!

Being here this early with the rising sun is amazing 😉

To conclude our visit to Hoi An, we booked a tour through the villages. With enthusiasm, we got into the jeep once again and had our guide Van explain the day's program. Our tour would take us to a typical fishing village with a visit to the fish market and a tour of the fish sauce production, then to a pottery village, and finally to a herb and vegetable farming village.

Upon arriving at the fish market, Van explained to us that the fishermen head out to sea every evening at 11 pm and return with fresh fish around 5 am. Their wives are already waiting at the harbor and begin selling the fish. By 11 am, everything is sold out, then it's lunchtime for the family and in the evening, the cycle starts anew. A truly hard life.

Many Vietnamese dishes taste so good because they are flavored with a special fish sauce. We could see how it's made on our tour. Sardines are soaked in sea salt in large wooden tubs at a 1:1 ratio - we taste it and are thrilled - it's delicious👍

Next, we visit a water coconut palm plantation on an island. We are greeted by a very friendly family, served coffee and tea, and invited to take a little boat tour in one of the typical round bamboo baskets. It's a wonderfully fun experience as we could wobble around in the baskets without tipping over 😉 Our two 'skippers' show us how they make jewelry from the coconut palm leaves - perfectly adorned, we continue to wobble down the river. The little boat trip is a bit reminiscent of the Spreewald, only that nature here is XXXL. However, everyone enjoys a little boat ride, no matter where in the world. When we return to land, we say goodbye to our two 'skippers' and continue to the pottery village. We are surprised as we recognize the area and tell our guide that we cycled here two days ago and visited the ceramics museum. Nevertheless, we visit the workshop of the old potter and learn that she is 93 years old and the pottery is now operated by her daughter and granddaughter. In the village, we also see kilns - they are fired differently than the kiln at the Kümmelschänke pottery - from the front, directly in front of the shards (pots, etc.). As a farewell gift from the place, we receive our zodiac signs for this year according to the Chinese calendar - I get the horse and Stefan gets the goat as a water pipe 😉

On the way to the last village, the herb and vegetable farming village, we visit the construction site of a new temple. The temple includes a small monastery where 12 monks live. Small but nice.

The vegetable village is a wonderful conclusion - we are greeted very friendly here as well and invited to cook Vietnamese food. But before that, we join in the gardening work in the field to learn about the origin of the ingredients. This will be the next fun performance. Alberto from Italy joins us and the three of us are given gardening clothes. Introduced to Vietnamese gardening, we dig, fertilize with organic fertilizer, prepare the bed, plant small seedlings🌱 and, of course, water them 😀

It's really fun, the three of us working hard here and breaking a sweat.

After work, comes the pleasure, for us in the form of a self-prepared meal. Under guidance, we create a new form of spring roll - wrapped in leek, with delicious herbs, shrimp, and pork. Afterwards, we practice tossing a omelette upwards. Together, we wrap the omelette with herbs in rice paper and enjoy it after dipping it in fish sauce. A delicious meal, crowned with a foot massage after a day's work. We are exhausted from the experiences and look forward to a break at the hotel before embarking on a final evening bike tour of the Old Town of Hoi An and saying goodbye.

Tomorrow morning we head to Dalat - in the highlands of Vietnam. According to the guidebook, we may encounter elephants there - I'm curious 😊

Kerstin

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