Drinkies! New Years! ~ Hoi An, Vietnam (Early through mid February)

We settled into Hoi An, Vietnam for Drinkies and Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year).

An ancient, international shipping port, quaint and picturesque to boot, Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The architecture and food here are a fusion of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and French. Hoi An cuisine claims a few hometown specialties: cau lau (rice noodles, broth, meat or tofu, lettuce, and mint), and white rose (rice noodle rounds with different savory stuffings and chili dipping sauces). The noodles for the cau lau are said to be made by only one family in Hoi An, with the water for them coming from one special well.

White Rose

Cau Lau

Drinkies!

Friends old and new, from left to right: Sheila, Heather, Delice, Bob, Diane, Steve, Eric, and Rene

Drinkies was held in the Sa Long Lounge Bar in Hoi An. We enjoyed some lovely drinkies, then moved on to a restaurant by the canal for din din and bia hoi. Bia hoi is fresh beer, yummy in a Pilsner sort of way, and must be drunk within 24 hours of creation. Sheila can sniff out bia hoi from a kilometer away!

Eric Likes Bia Hoi Too

Ask anyone in Hoi An about Tet (February 18 this year) and you get a huge grin and enthusiastic talk of the festival and time with family. Preparations start a week ahead of time, with shops starting to close, housecleaning, shopping, and cooking, and kumquat trees delivered to homes and businesses on the backs of motorcycles or en masse on trucks.

Kumquat Tree at Tam Tam Restaurant

On New Years and up to a week after, it is considered unlucky to clean house or sew, among other things, such as having an unmarried, middle-aged woman come to your house. Imagine the tailor's horror when I walked up and asked her to size down a bunch of my clothing. She said to wait about ten days. I'm still walking around in oversized clothes! (Yay! actually; Eric and I are doing well on our Southeast Asia diet; still have more to go but we're not quite the Pooh Bears who waddled out our front gate in November.)

The Year of the Golden Pig

The festival reminded me of small-town festivals I'd been to in the past, with a stage featuring local entertainment in drama, traditional singing and dancing, and some pop music. At a game arcade along the canal, you could win prizies for performing various feats. At one stall, a boy of nine years or so succeeded in throwing a plastic basket over a bottle of vodka and happily ran off with his high-proof prizie. At another stall, revelers threw balls to knock down stacks of condensed milk cans. And then there was. . .

...The Dart Board Challenge...



...In Which Sheila Leary Witholds Juicy Strawberry-Creme Cookies From Hungry Vietnamese Children

In a cruel twist of cookie karma, Sheila would later discover there was in fact no juicy strawberry creme filling whatsoever between the biscuits.

The fireworks over the canal and river were magnificent. After that, Eric and I toddled home. On the way we passed a pagoda where Buddhist monks were performing a ceremony. We didn't really understand it but it was cool.

Lanterns at the Pagoda Ceremony

We went with Bob and Sheila to My Son, another UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most important example of Champa civilization ruins in Vietnam. It was interesting, but a good deal of it had been blown away during the Vietnam War. (President Nixon was requested to stop bombing ancient ruins; he complied with orders to leave the ruins alone but hit the targets, duh.)

Field Trip! or, You Kids Keep it Down, Don't Make Me Come Back There...

Champa Ruins at My Son

We were in Hoi An for over two weeks, because it's a cool place and to avoid pre- and post-Tet traffic mania. The fabulous food, people, art, and ambiance made it easy to make Hoi An home. We were really sad to leave.

Here are some photos from various events and handicraft shops in Hoi An.

Sculptures at Chinese Assembly Halls

Dance Performances

Handicrafts

Because Eric Thinks It's Funny


Too Cute Not to Post