Hue to Hoi An

 Say hello to Long, our local cycling guide!

We left Hue by car yesterday (Saturday) morning and headed south towards Hoi An.  About 30 minutes outside of Hue we made our first stop and by far the longest stop of the day.  We stopped in the small village of La Chu.  We had three activities scheduled for our visit.  A bicycling tour around and through the village, lunch and a combination mineral foot bath and massage.  Our driver twisted and turned down tiny one lane roads before coming to a stop at an intersection.  From there we walked about 100 yards down a path to a small outdoor restaurant.  There were four bikes parked outside that had a "tourist bike" look to them (multi-speed and a big basket on the front).  Our guide, who was very nice but whose name we never learned (she told us but we just didn't pick it up) introduced us to our local biking guide.  His name was Long, he was all of eleven years of age, in the sixth grade and smiled from the time we met him until we said goodbye.

He let me shoot his handmade slingshot.  I was very surprised when I hit the target.  Long had a big bump over his eye where a rock he was shooting bounced back and hit him in the head.  It reminded me of "The Christmas Story" and the line "you'll shoot your eye out kid"

We headed out on the bikes with Long leading the way and our unnamed but friendly guide pulling up the rear.  We made several stops along the five mile route.  First at a local temple and then at a fish farming pond.  At the fish pond our guide (not Long) told us the fish were red snapper.  Now I'm no expert on local fish and they may very well have been red snapper but they sure looked like large gold fish to me.  Either red snapper has a different meaning in Vietnam or it was a brilliant marketing move!
The scenery was interesting the whole way but without question the most interesting stop was our next one.  We stopped at a house where the family made paper votives throughout the year that are sold for burning at the time of the monthly full moon and especially at the lunar new year which occurs in February.  If you're like me and not real "high tone" and don't know what a paper votive is, it's an object made in the likeness of a real object.  They are burned so the smoke will carry these items to deceased relatives who have transitioned to the afterlife.  They looked like everything from houses, boots, hats, suits and cell phones.  It was quite interesting to learn about this cultural tradition that is a combination of Buddhism, Confucius and Taoism.

The fish pond was full of fish, I'm just not sure they were red snapper

A few pictures of some of the handmade paper votives

We then stopped at another house where a group of ladies were making a rice flour dumpling that was steamed in banana leaves.  The filling on top of the rice flour was a mixture of shrimp, pork, vegetables and spices.  There were two different types.  I tried both of them.  They didn't taste bad (other than the shrimp shells were not removed making them a bit crunchy).  It's been more than 24 hours since eating them and I'm still standing so I think I'm in the clear (at least on that little venture into the land of unknown food).

They had quite an assembly line going. 

We don't tend to venture too far off the safe path when we eat.  This was a little off the path!

We finished up the tour by stopping at the local village market.  This market is held everyday from 6:00 am until noon.  There were all types of fruits and vegetables, dry goods and meats (some identifiable and some not).  If you do this biking tour I would highly recommend the market stop but you may want to consider skipping the meat section of the market!

The local market and our nice guide whose name we never learned!

Although the stops were fun, the highlight of the tour was our local guide, Long.  He watched over us with tender loving care from start to finish, and of course smiling the whole time!  He was also quite a celebrity in his village.  Everyone seemed to know him.  He was constantly waving at everyone we passed from the very young to the very old.  We got the celebrity treatment as well, with people going out of their way to smile, wave and in their broken English greet us with a big hello.  I'm predicting a bright future as a village leader for Long!
Long's mother was the owner of the restaurant.  It didn't take but a few minutes to see where Long got his smile.  She smiled the whole time she was preparing and serving us a delicious and as usual, multicourse lunch.  Oh yeah, between the bike ride and lunch there was that little matter of soaking our feet in warm water with multiple herbs followed by another foot and lower leg massage.

It wasn't quite the Tour de' Vietnam but we still enjoyed a foot soaking and massage after the ride

Lunch is served!

There is always rice!  You're always guaranteed to have a "rice day"

From La Chu village we made our way on to Hoi An.  Making a couple of stops for photos and passing through the beach area of Da Nang, including China Beach which was famous as a place during the war for US troops to try to escape the stress of combat.

Hoi An is a coastal town in central Vietnam that has a population of around 120,000 people.  We'll be staying at the Hoi An Silk Hotel for four nights, our longest consecutive stay at one place this trip.  Our hotel is about four kilometers from the beach but is located near the main attraction of the city, the "ancient city" which is made up of old, well preserved buildings with narrow streets decorated by lanterns which are lit at night.  The center piece of the ancient city is a canal that runs through it.  With the buildings, boats, floating lanterns, night market, shops and restaurants we quickly agreed that it's a combination of Disney's EPCOT, the San Antonio Riverwalk and Venice all rolled into one.  We explored a little bit last night and look forward to seeing more of it in the coming days.