Our buggy picked us up at the front door to drive us to the main reception area. We picked up a few hitch hikers (neighbors) on their way to the same place. Bill and Rosemary from Virginia --- we ended up chatting with them for a while before jumping in the car with our guide and heading in to town. The first stop was Morning Glory, a restaurant in the center of town. There we met Lou, the head chef, who took us to the town's market. The market opens at 2 AM for fish sales and 4 AM for meat sales,,,, crazy. She taught us what to look for in fish and meat to ensure it's fresh and safe to eat. With fish, the clearer the eyeballs are the fresher the meat. I guess the longer a dead fish sits around the cloudier their eyeballs get,,,, very interesting.
After the market tour we went back to Lou's teaching room to start the class. Adventure Asia arranged a private class which was perfect. Lou is a fantastic chef; I'd feel safe eating her food anytime. She taught us a thousand and one ways to use fish oil in everything we cook. Katie and I enjoyed making our own food and then, of course, getting to eat it. Our guide was very excited to take pictures, we deleted about half of them but, as you'll see, there are still a lot of photos from that part of the day. After the last course we paid them $14 (for 14 beers) and headed on our way. (Everything is so cheap here).
After the cooking class which lasted from about 9 AM to 12 PM, we headed to the two clothing stores that we ordered from the day before. They had us try on all the clothes and for the most part everything was great. There were a few changes that needed to occur so we set an appointment for each company to come to the hotel around 5 for a final fitting. Of course, each company had some last minute deals to offer us. We ended up ordering 2 table cloths and 1 additional sport coat.
Then it was time to tackle the town. Katie, our guide and I went from store to store wheeling and dealing. It's amazing how poor the people in this town are. The average worker makes about $3k US per year. You can buy just about anything at 50% off the initial price they tell you. However, sometimes it's just not worth the effort to negotiate. For instance, at one store I wanted to buy these marble figures that represent the years of our birth (mine, Abby, Hailey and Katie's). After picking them all out I asked how much, expecting $10 a piece. They were $8 for all 4 ($2 a piece) - I was okay with that. Shirts were usually a $1 or less, PJs were $10, etc, etc. Everything was very inexpensive.
After the shopping we went to a quaint little bar alongside the water. After 2 beers, a water and a drink for our guide the total came to $1.80 US,,, wow! We really started to learn the value of a dollar here in Vietnam, it can go a long way if you're smart about it.
On the way back to the hotel around 3:15 PM we were reminded of our farm tour. While neither of us were really up to farming the tour did include a foot massage. Our guide confirmed we can pass up the tour and just enjoy the massage. We arrived at the farm and were greeted by the 2nd generation of farmers and their kids. The parents (1st generation) were there but mostly kept to themselves. The wife and her daughter and/or friend (we're not sure) gave us this wonderful sugar water drink then had us put our feet in some herbal hot water. They then started massaging our feet and back (again, our guide loved the camera and took a bunch of photos). The massage was great but Katie and I felt bad having these folks massage our feet. Our guide also mentioned that the grandfather use to work for the South (Americans) during the war but doubled as an agent for the North at night. He was captured and tortured by the South. They beat him so bad that he lost his hearing. It was really sad to hear...
Around 4 PM we arrived back at the hotel and made a mad dash for the pool. Our butler brought out drinks and snacks for us. We hung out in the pool until after 5 when the tailors arrived. After trying on clothes and inspecting the table cloth we thanked them and they took off. Katie and I got ourselves ready for dinner and headed up to the main building to eat.
We decided to eat at the bar so that we could enjoy the live music vs eating downstairs at the restaurant. At the bar we ran in to Carrie and Michael and ended up eating with them. Around 10:30 or so we were all beat and called it a night. Overall it was a relaxing day.
I wrote yesterday that we were trying to stay an extra day. We weren't able to easily change our plans so Admiral Travel did the next best thing. Originally we were to leave at 10 AM the next day but that got moved to 8 PM so we will be able to enjoy a day at the resort without any tours scheduled,,,, nice!!!
I added pictures to the Hoi An album below,,,, check it out.
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