Indochina 2010: Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới!

Just in case you need to greet any Vietnamese people in the next few days (though, of course, their New Year- Tet, based on the lunar calendar - is in early February), this is the Vietnamese for Happy New Year - which we wish you all.   Oh, and Andy's just pointed out that today is 1/1/11, hopefully an auspicious number for us all.

We've had a great second week here in Hoi An, once we got over the disappointment of not having Cynthia or Jo with us.   On 23 December, we checked into the hotel which Intrepid Travel had booked us into back in October, and were greeted like long lost friends by the Reception staff.   These must be amongst the most friendly and fun-loving staff in any hotel anywhere - and that's really saying something:  almost all of the hotel staff we've met in Vietnam are incredibly friendly and helpful as a matter of course.   Here, though, we were presented with a huge bouquet of yellow lilies and a bowl of fruit as a welcome gift, and just about all of the 6 or 7 girls on the desk came out from behind it to shake our hands or hug us.   Actually, hugging, or putting an arm around our waists, or their arm through ours, seems to be a typical Vietnamese greetings custom.   The woman we rent our bikes from does it, the wheelchair-bound man who sells us an English language newspaper each day does it, traders in the clothing and shoe shops we've usd do it, teenagers and children we meet in the street will often do it, even young teenage boys will put their arm around Andy by way of greeting as we pass in the street.   At first we were rather suspicious of this behaviour from strangers, assuming that it was perhaps the distraction ploy of a pickpocket.   But we were completely wrong on that one, and we've started to get used to this very physical form of greeting from all kinds of people, even though it can be a bit overwhelming at times.   The other thing they love to do over here is to josh with their customers and clients.   For example, each day we put our laptop and valuables into the hotel's safe in the lobby downstairs and very often when we ask for it back when we return to our room, the girls will say something like 'No, sorry, I've sold it - but I got a good price for it.', or 'Oh, I thought you wanted me to put it in the laundry: it's too late to stop it now', or 'You can only have it when I've finished my computer games', before breaking out into giggles and fetching it out of the safe for us.

These same hotel staff hosted a really delightful party for the hotel's guests for the early part of Christmas Eve evening.   There were balloons, a Christmas tree, and decorations all over the restaurant;  all the staff were dressed in Santa outfits, and they started the evening, after we'd been given loads of local traditional cakes and soft drinks, by singing several Christmas songs which they'd taken the trouble to learn in English, and which we were invited to join in.   Then there were silly games, dancing and a raffle - in which Andy managed to win two lovely red Vietnamese/Chinese silk lanterns. And then there were cocktails.........!

On Christmas Day, we and nephew Dominic spent the morning lounging on the beach and swimming in the South China Sea (sorry, just had to say that!), before Andy and I met up with Cynth's son John and his girlfriend Liz for a superb sea-food meal overlooking the delightful river-front, before going on for a cocktail or two at a local bar where we met up with some of John and Liz's friends.   A lovely, relaxed Christmas Day.

However many times we wander up and down the riverside, and indeed the back streets of Hoi An, we're completely blown away by its charm.   I've described it before as a Vietnamese Venice - loads of lovely old buildings, many dating from the 11th-15th Century and the Chinese and Japanese rules, and many from the French colonial days, most of them festooned with silk and paper lanterns.   The colours of the walls and shutters are great, too: lots of ochre yellows, brick reds, burnt umbers, cobalt blue, aquamarine, and many with heavy dark wood panelling or doors, often with elaborate carvings, and 'ying-yang' terracotta rooves - bamboo-shaped tiles laid concave and convex in alternate rows.

Boxing Day morning was spent collecting some of the clothes we'd had made for the Vietnamese wedding we described in our last blog , and in the afternoon/evening, we went to a great party in Liz's apartment in Danang.   Liz's Vietnamese next-door neighbour had made a 5-litre pot full of a traditional 'straw wine' - a kind of gluhwein which takes several weeks to ferment, and into which she'd put 9 long bamboo straws so that 9 people at a time could take a sip, or six!   Don't think it was necessarily because of this wine, but everyone we met was very sociable and friendly, and it was great to meet up with so many of John's and Liz's local friends and colleagues, having already met so many of his sister's friends and colleagues back in Vientiane.

The following two days, we went on a motor-bike and jeep tour, organised by an Aussie friend of John's, which took us up into the mountains in the central highlands north-west of Hoi An, along some of the Ho Chi Minh trail which the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had used to such devastating effect against the Americans and their South Vietnamese collaborators, and past some of the ex-US bases.   By now,the weather had grown fairly overcast and, though warm enough to walk around in, it was occasionally bloody cold as we rushed through the mountains on the back of a motor-bike or in the window-less, door-less, US army jeeps.   As for the jeeps, we were absolutley amazed, given their recent history, that we were greeted with beaming smiles, shouted greetings, waves or even 'high-fives' as we drove through the towns and countryside villages.   Apart from one or two elderly people who looked on seemingly bemused, we found absolutely no hint of hostility from a people for whom these vehicles must be a symbol of everything they fought so doggedly against.   Overnight, we slept in a stilt-house in a local village, and played with some of the local children, before heading back through Danang to Hoi An for late afternoon/early evening on Tuesday.

Since then, we've been to the wedding, done yet more shopping, cycled around exploring more of the town and the surrounding countryside, been to a Vietnamese cookery class, and eaten yet more fantastic food.   Our cookery class was a brilliant day out - we learned loads, and had a real good laugh too.   We assembled as 8 o'clock in the morning, together with Daniel and Tony from Melbourne, Glen, a Canadian academic from the Solomon Islands now living in Tokyo, Richard and Gabriella from Toronto, Yulia from Germany, Kevin and Jenny from Decatur in Georgia, and Suzanna from London.    We were taken by mini-bus to the organic vegetable village that Andy and I had visited a few days before, to see how they till and prepare the soil and grow the various vegetables and hundreds of different herbs, and, under our Chef's guidance, we bought armfuls of both to take with us.   Then there was a visit to a local Cho (market) to collect more supplies, before we were taken out to the Red Bridge Cooking School in a beautifully scenic location by the river-side about 5k out of the town. Again under the guidance of our Vietnamese Chef, which he sprinkled liberally with lots of the kind of joshing and ribbing which seems such a natural party of their communications over here, we made 4 different Vietnamese dishes: (1) Hanoi Beef and Rice Noodle Soup - for which a huge pot of home-made stock made from beef shins and onions, both barbecued briefly to reduce the fat and bring out of the flavours bubbled away for 2 hours on the barbecue nearby, and for which we also made our own noodles using rice batter, and a side dish of herbs and a pickle dip; (2) Grilled Chicken and Banana Flower Salad, with a topping of Vietnamese mint, Asian basil, roasted sesame seeds and crispy shallots, and a dressing made from lime juice, fish sauce, crushed garlic and sugar; (3) Lemongrass Shrimp wrapped in Banana Leaves, barbecued and accompanied with a lime dipping sauce; and (4) Clay Pot Fish with Fresh Dill, for which we used, amongst many other ingredients, fresh, rather than the more familiar powdered, turmeric.   Don't know if your mouths are watering yet, but mine certainly is, just remembering all the complex and beautiful flavours we managed to put together into such a sumptuous feast!

After eating our lunch together, the 11 of us were taken back into town by river-boat, with our boatman doing his best to point out flora and fauna of interest - including, for only the second time in my entire life, a sighting of kingfisher perched on the top of a small bush and then darting along the riverbank beside us in all its blue and green shimmering glory.   We'd had such a great time together that day, that all 11 oft us agreed to meet up later that evening to see in the New Year together.   The town itself, festive at the best of times, was really lively, and the many hundreds of lanterns already in situ were competing for attention with loads of new fairy-light displays all over the river-front, and floating candles placed on the river itself by people making New Year wishes.   We all spent the evening at the end of the An Hoi peninsular looking back towards the town of Hoi An itself, where there are lots of rows of tables and chairs and several small, local eateries, usually catering only for local people.   On New Year's Eve, however, it seemed that, as well as our group, several others, each from multiple countries, had chosen this place as the venue for what turned into a truly great celebration.   At about 1 in the morning, and only after several renditions of Auld Lang Syne, we took our leave of the group, some of us promising to meet up again this evening - New Year's Day, and our last evening in Hoi An before we head off to Ho Chi Minh City for a couple of days, and thence to Bangkok for our flight home - English weather permitting!   But, let's not get ahead of ourselves - we have more exploring to do in HCMH yet .....