Oodles of Noodles

Usually it's the idiosyncrasies of a country that I simply love discovering. Other times it's those quirks that drive me crazy. Vietnam is a land of quirks to be sure!

When sorting how to get from Doc Let to Hoi An - at nine hours, a rather long journey - I naturally gravitated toward an overnight transportation option. With four overnight trains to choose from I figured I was set. But wait, the overnight trains only have hard sleeper berths and the one daytime train has soft sleeper berths?! This was similar to my sleeper bus experience which was the only option between Saigon and Dalat; regardless of the time of day or night you were required to recline!

Forced to Relax - Vietnam Sleeper Bus

Hoi An is an over-the-top sort of tourist destination to be sure but I loved it! Mostly because I could explore the surrounding countryside with a morning run or a leisurely bike ride. The only organized tour I got sucked into was a cooking tour, and that was just because I wanted to learn the proper way to make a fresh spring roll.

No Gluten Here!

The tour started with a meander through the market and an explanation of the various kinds of rice noodles. Personally I love market shopping - it's one of the things I miss most about living in Ecuador - but I'm pretty darn sure if markets were to replace the American supermarket most of the population would eat a lot less meat. There's just something about witnessing the butchering process that makes it so much more personal.

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Following the market, we boarded a junk for a meander down the river where we came across some fishermen tossing out a net. Although purely for our benefit, it was fun to cheer them on as each toss became a little more dramatic.

When the mangroves started to narrow we swapped the big boat for these crazy round boats. I'd seen the larger fishing boats using them to haul supplies out to their boat and was curious as to the purpose of the round shape. Turns out you simply cannot flip the thing! Plus they're woven from bamboo and coated with dung from a water buffalo making them about as eco-friendly as it gets.