Hoi An, Part 2

Hoi An, Vietnam
15.8801°N, 108.3380°E

Our second week in Hoi An started with some sad news.

My grandmother, the 94-year old matriarch of my mom’s family, passed away unexpectedly. It might seem strange to say this was “unexpected” given her age, but she was in very good health for someone born in 1922, including having the sharpest mind of anyone I’ve ever met at that age. Sharp enough to remember the birthdays of her 57 grandkids and great-grandkids, each of which received a call from “Mom-Mom” (or “Mom-Mom-Mom” to the great-grandkids) every year.

We couldn’t make it to New Jersey for the services, but my mom and other family members kindly reassured us that the last thing Mom-Mom would want is for us to interrupt our trip. Regardless, it was hard not being able to celebrate her with all of our family. Sarah was also not able to get back for her grandmother’s services after she passed away shortly after we left for our trip in January. There are few things that suck about traveling for such an extended period, and not being able to get home for things like this is on top of that list.

Since the start of our trip, my Aunt Mick has been printing out our blog posts and bringing them to Mom-Mom, who read each of them word for word. Aunt Mick reminded me in an email that Mom-Mom, a devout Catholic, always lit a candle when family members were traveling long distances or when someone was in need of prayers. I’m sure she lit a candle for Sarah and me on our flight leaving Boston, and probably lit one for Sarah after I told her Sarah agreed to marry me.

Candles for Mom-Mom

Hoi An is often referred to as the “City of Lanterns” because the town streets are lined with handmade lanterns. Every full moon, festivals are held and the town turns off its lights and lets the lanterns do the work. Our time in Hoi An didn’t coincide with April’s festival, but every night small wooden rowboats take people for short paddles down the river to release small paper lanterns sold on shore. We figured this would be a great way to honor her life and legacy.

We also realized after Mom-Mom’s passing that one of Vietnam’s oldest Catholic churches is in Hoi An, and only about a 10-minute walk from our homestay. We went there to light a candle for Mom-Mom and were met by a very kind priest who was preparing for an evening mass. We told him why we were there and he disappeared for a few minutes behind the altar. He came back with a candle from the church and suggested we take it and light it for Mom-Mom during her funeral.

Serendipity aside, Mom-Mom’s passing reminded us how important it has been for us to have families and friends that have supported us in this adventure. It can sometimes feel like we’ve made a selfish decision to leave everything behind in Boston and disappear for a year, but the support from our families and friends has made it much easier to adjust to our wandering lives. And I figure if a 94-year-old considered our trip to be a great idea, we must be doing something right.

Now Back to the Eating

A huge part of Hoi An’s culture is its unique cuisine. Sarah and I decided that the best way to learn Hoi An’s food story was to schedule a walking food tour. We met our guide Tommy around 4:00 p.m. and headed towards town for our first stop, the famous White Rose Restaurant. White Rose, a type of dumpling, is considered a Hoi An specialty and is in almost every restaurant. One family holds a generations-old secret recipe and supplies the entire town with these doughy treats.

After our White Rose experience, we headed to check out the city’s best banh mi. The most famous spot is Banh Mi Phuong thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s visit several years ago. Sarah and I had already been to Banh Mi Phuong (twice actually), so Tommy took us to the other most popular place, Madam Khanh’s. Many people argue that Madam Khanh, aka “The Banh Mi Queen” is the better of the two spots, but my love for all things banh mi makes it difficult to choose between the two. The Queen definitely didn’t disappoint.

After our sandwiches, we headed towards Hoi An’s market. First stop there was to try balut egg. If you’re reading this, feeling adventurous and aren’t currently eating, feel free to Google “Vietnam balut egg” to know more about this treat, but all you really need to know is that 1) Sarah didn’t even consider eating it and 2) it’s considered one of the five Vietnamese “challenge foods” (i.e., things most westerners wouldn’t consider eating).

Another local food Hoi An is known for is cao lau, a noodle and pork dish. For this meal, Tommy took us into the market to a counter where they serve in his opinion the best cao lau in the city. We had tried cao lau at a couple of other places, but this place was definitely the best!

Our guide Tommy also took us to a family’s home to have some more food, including an amazing pork spring roll. The home was owned by the parents of Tommy’s friend, and we were given some of the history of the neighborhood and the Hoi An diet.

After the eating was finished, we walked across the river to an area where traditional Vietnamese games are played, including a bingo-like game and a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey-like game that involved smashing a hanging clay pot while blindfolded.

Time to Cook

Sarah has been taking cooking classes in every country we’ve traveled to so far. Because of my love for Vietnamese food, I decided to join her for a class in Hoi An. We decided on Thuan Tinh Island for our cooking experience. It was a very cool experience visiting the market with the chef to purchase the ingredients, learning about the food’s history and how it’s traditionally cooked, and of course eating our meals.

Photo Class

On one of our last days in Hoi An we joined a photography workshop with Hoi An Photo Tours, which started at 5:00 a.m. The classes take place mostly in a small fishing village just outside the city. The village was the perfect spot to capture all of the morning activity between the fishermen and the women purchasing the fish to sell in local markets.

We had understood this class to be for anyone interested in photography, but realized our “classmates” were much more serious photographers that the two of us when the instructor asked everyone to talk about the cameras they would be using for the day. Each of the other five people in the class responded with the type of camera they were carrying, along with many other specifics completely over our head. Sarah and I were the last in line, and when the instructor asked what we were packing, Sarah sheepishly responded “iPhone7s”.

Fortunately, our guide was very nice and this didn’t seem to be the first time someone was in his class taking pictures with their phones. He gave us some great tips and took us to some very cool locations to take photos, including a factory that makes fish sauce, a private residence where a woman made us fried black bean cakes, and several locations around the fishing pier.

Leaving Hoi An

We woke up really early our last day in Hoi An to squeeze in some last minute photos, using some of our newly learned techniques from the workshop. We were both sad to be moving on from Hoi An, a place we felt like we could have stayed in for many more weeks or months.

We were especially bummed to have to say goodbye to our amazing host Moon, and her staff as well. Moon was the only one in the house that spoke good English, but we still felt very connected to them our entire stay. It’s amazing how much can be communicated over two weeks through smiles, nods, and thumbs up.

But it was time to fly back to Saigon for a night in order to catch a morning flight to Laos.