January 6th, 2023

On Jan 5, we got up and had breakfast, then headed to the old town for our cooking class at the morning glory school. We got to start by going on a tour through the market, and trying a few fruits and smelling some spices. It was bonkers busy since it’s the full moon festival tonight. Max was the class keener - answering all of our guide’s questions correctly… it was so embarrassing.

We went back to the school and tried making white rose dumplings, cutting the cao lau noodles, and making these rice cake things. We sampled some herbal coffees, and then went up for the hands on cooking class. Our instructor was Lulu, who has worked for Ms Ly (the restaurant tycoon who owns Morning Glory and six other restaurants) since she was 14 - it’s been 28 years! She taught us to make cabbage soup, which was delightful, and green mango salad, marinated chicken, and these special yellow pancakes. Everything tasted so good, but they helped us a LOT. I am not sure we could replicate everything at home in a reasonable time frame, though they did give us the recipes and a cooking implement for shaving vegetables.

We went to our first fitting for our clothes, and then also got measured for shoes. We are getting swept up in the Hoi An madness lol.

We showered, and Max did some bike maintenance, then we headed to the pool to read our books and drink some ginger tea. Then it was time for lantern festival!! We headed for dinner near the river, and got to sit right by the water. We had hot pot, and it was really pretty. We met a German guy and split one of the vietnamese boat rides with him - our driver was sweet and gave us some candle lanterns to release and make a wish. All very cute, but I think generates a lot of waste as well. We sat by the river for a while longer after the boat ride and chatted - overall a wonderful day.

The next morning, we decided to do the old town tour! We got a ticket for $8 that lets you see five things. We saw an assembly hall where people were making wishes for the vietnamese new year on the coiled incense, then the ceramics museum. We also went to the Japanese covered bridge and saw the Japanese street. We went to a memorial for three merchant ships that were robbed by a general, and he killed the crew of 107 innocent people, then pretended it was pirates, but the king figured it out and punished the general and his team. Finally, we went to a chapel which had crazy architecture of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese origin, and rolled some coins to make a wish. Max’s wish will come true, but not mine. Oh well.

We got delicious bahn mi at the banh mi queen, and also coconut coffees. Max would be on a coffee tour if he had his way.

We picked up our shoes and clothes, and headed back to the hostel to get organized for our bus to Dalat. A van picked us up to bring us to the highway to meet the bus… we never know what is going on. They just give us new slips of paper and direct us to do things, and we do our best to follow. Our driver SUCKS. He is already smoking in the bus and just laying on the horn incessantly, and they were so rough with our bikes. A girl asked a question and he started screaming “No No No No No” and pounding the steering wheel. I guess being a night bus driver would be a terrible job but this is almost comedic.

The ride will be 14 hours through the night, but there are supposed to be cool adventures there! Hopefully we get some okay weather.