173. Spontaneous Vietnamese cooking class photo dump (Hoi An - Day 2)

21 Aug, 2024

The nutty part about me going to Vietnam was that I was supposed to be a part-time admin guy for a start-up that never left the ground yet. I left a position that I never even started in, I guess. I'm glad I didn't sign any papers, in all honesty...

Here are some photos of what I saw on my second day in Hoi An.

Me riding in the basket boat alone. I was the most important boat because I had all of the ingredients and bags in my basket...

Cẩm Thanh, often referred to as the Coconut Village, is just a brief 10 to 15-minute taxi ride from Hoi An. Nestled along the Thu Bon River, this tranquil area is interwoven with tributaries flowing through lush coconut palm forests. Here, you can experience a ride in a traditional Vietnamese basket boat, also known as a coracle.

It's hard to fathom how the Vietnamese manage to use these in the open ocean. They lack everything we typically expect in a boat, like the ability to maintain a straight line, avoid spinning, and provide stability... yet they’ve been successfully used for millennia, alongside more conventional boats. The guides navigated us upstream and into the channels of a local island.

We spun, rocked and frolicked in the tiny boats, under the sun. This guy is always doing tricks and spinning around in the middle of the water. Cool spectacle indeed.

Photo of a boat I saw along the river. Very touristy things I did.

I really didn't expect this all to happen so suddenly when I spontaneously signed up for this cooking class. Basically, this was my itinerary that day:

Activities: Marker tour, a boat trip, basket boat riding, rice paper making

Duration: 5 hours