Hoi An, Vietnam - Boat Trip on the Thy Bon River (Sunday, November 13th, 2016)

We woke up in our beautiful room at the Hoi An Trails Resort, and headed to the dining room for our complimentary breakfast. We were excited to see that they had a choice of indoor or outdoor seating, so we chose to sit out on their beautiful patio.  They had a nice variety of traditional Vietnamese breakfast food, so we dove in to see what we could find today.

The hotel lobby

The hotel grounds were beautiful!

We headed out to our bus for our optional morning tour, the Thy Bon River Cruise.   The boat trip began at a local pier in the Old Town.  We cruised down streams and past many fishing areas.  

We saw many river boats, which have two eyes painted on the front of them.  The eyes serve two purposes, the first, helping the fishermen to see when they are navigating at night, and the second is to scare away alligators that might be in the river.  The are other boats on the river that have no eyes, these are ocean boats that have come up the river.  

Houses on the river are built in an elevated style to avoid the high waters during the monsoon season when the river floods. All of the big houses along the banks of Hoi An are new, being built only in the last few years.  They are owned by locals and rented out to tourists.  tourism is booming in this town!

The house in the picture is about $120,000.  


Houses along the river used to be much more expensive than houses in town because the river was the only transportation route, but now that Hoi An has developed roads, most people prefer to live in the town and get around on motorbikes, so the real estate on this river is now much cheaper.  Most of the fishing boats we saw on the river were 5-10 years old, but Khanh said that well maintained boats will last up to 30 years. 

We saw a small fishing boat, the woman was driving the boat and the man was netting fish.  This is the traditional way of fishing on the rivers.  It was really fun to watch!

When they saw us, they were kind enough to show us what they had caught so far.

During our boat ride, we saw a fishing quay, where the fishermen meet and moor their boats.  Around the quay, the water is brackish where the ocean water meets the river.  We saw a lot of water hyacinths floating on the river.  

We also saw some very large nets hanging on fours poles.  All of the nets were out of the water, but they lower them into the water and then pull them up by hand with a pulley system.

There were some plants in front of the large nets.  They are planted by the fishermen and are used for making sleeping mats.  Both the nets and the plants have to be approved by the government before they are placed in the river so that the government can be assured that they won't change the flow of the water.  The Vietnamese government is very involved in all decisions.

As we rode the boat down the river, we kept seeing more and more islands.  I finally asked Steve to pull us a map on his phone so I could see where we were. There is quite a maze of river and islands.

We passed a large sand barge.  They look to us like they could sink at any moment, but somehow they stay afloat.

Then we passed another couple doing a different type of net fishing.

Most of the islands in the middle of the river are used only for growing crops because they are under water during the flood season, but there are a few higher islands that have houses and even small towns on them.

A couple of women bringing something across the river to sell.  

The fact that we have these river cruises periodically really helps us get over our missing bus rides between cities.  We still have a chance to see more rural people in their ordinary lifes.

 Fishing is considered to be a much harder ob than farming.  Families turn to fishing if they don't have any land because their only investment is a small boat and a net.

Typhoons are common in Hio An, so people put rocks on their roofs and build their houses with very sturdy construction to ensure that they will make it through the fierce storms.

The bamboo basket in the next picture is used as a dingy by a fisherman.  Right now it is anchored out, so that when the fisheman comes home, he can get into the basket and get himself to shore. The fishermen will also use them for night fishing.  They will drop a net, and then light a lantern in the bamboo boat.  The light will attract the fish and then they will pull the net up from below.

We arrived on one of the islands in the Kim Bong Village.  It is home of traditional woodworking and boat building.  Each year the boats have to be repaired and have the barnacles removed from them, especially the ocean boats, so this is done in the Kim Bong Village in addition to the building of new boats.

We walked around the island and stopped at a wood working shop as well as several boat building businesses.  No one was working because it was Sunday, and there was no electricity on the island on Sunday's.  

We stopped to look at one boat that was in progress, Khanh said that it would see for $60,000 to $70,000 when it was complete. They prefer to make the boats out of ironwood, but it is getting hard to get.  Most of the wood they use now is imported from China because most of the forests were destroyed during the war from the agent orange.

On this island, there were some kids in the street playing a traditional Vietnamese games, kind of like hackey sack in the U.S.

We went into a wood working shop, where we could use the restrooms, and look at their workshop and the goods they have for sale.

The restroom was the family's personal restroom, and was a very traditional style, except for the western style toilet.  In southeast Asia, the shower and toilet are always together and there is no shower curtain to keep the bathroom dry.  I can't imagine having to wipe down the entire bathroom after every shower.  But then again, maybe they don't.



From the second floor, I could look out the window to the shops below.

Then we took a little time to look through the shop at all of their beautiful work.

They had so many Buddha's, so I asked them how to tell which Buddha's were the Vietnamese Buddha's and they said the happy ones!

The workshop was fascinating to see as well.

Then we continued our tour around the island.

We walked through a small market where they were cooking something, and they had all kinds of things for sale.

Papayas

We walked by a little family farm with a cow in the shed.

They use these gourds as a type of food coloring, especially for rice. Similar to how we use saffron.

A custard apple

Star fruit
Our next stop was a boat yard where they build and repair boats.

More boats in progress.

Bending the wood between two stakes.

And of course, the village on this island has an escape boat in case the river gets too high.  They keep it upside down so that it can't fill with water!

As we were all getting back on our boat, Steve ran back to grab some bananas to share with everyone.  It was past lunch time, and we were getting really hungry.

As we left the Kim Bong Village and headed back toward Hoi An, we could see the Hoi An Market along the rivers edge.

After a short bus ride, we were taken to the Traque Organic Village where we had lunch and learned to make Vietnamese pancakes.  

After lunch Khanh gave us a tour of the farm an shared some facts about organic farming in Vietnam. The plants are fertilized with the water hyacinth and river weed.  They remove it from the river and lay it out until it is completely dry.  That ensures that any bugs that were in it are dead.  Then they lay it in the ground and plant on top of it.  It was a really interesting tour.

We all got to try our hand at cooking and flipping the pancakes in the outdoor kitchen.  

I have to include the recipe for Vietnamese pancakes here, because they are probably the best thing I have ever eaten in my life!

Vietnamese pancakes are made with 1 cup rice flour, 2 cups cold water, turmeric, 1/2 an egg and scallions.  You don't have to use the egg.  The pancakes are crispier without it.

Add chicken and shrimp to the hot pan with oil.  When they are cooked add the pancake batter and a few bean sprouts.  Cook with a lid until it steams (1 1/2 minutes).  Remove the lid and flip the pancake.  Cook a little longer, then serve.   Lay the pancake on a prepared rice paper, then top with fresh vegetables (cucumber, lettuce, mint, basil, wasabi) and then roll.  Dip in prepared fish sauced based sweet and sour.

First the chef showed ushow to make them.

Then it was our turn to give it a try.

Now Steve and Helen's turn.  A Youtube video is located at 
https://youtu.be/o3Qt7JXmSZk  of Steve and Helen's cooking experience!  Thank you Chris for the video.

And now it is Chris' turn!

We were then served a five course meal of pancakes, beef and shrimp skewers, green papaya salad, curry chicken, sweet and sour fish, stir fried morning glory, steamed rice and watermelon.  This was by far the best food we have eaten on this entire trip!  It was fabulous, and all we could eat!

Vietnamese Pancakes

mint, rocket, cucumber, lettuce, cilantro

Water hyacinth being dried for fertilizer

After we left the organic farm the bus dropped off Chris, Helen, Steve and I in the old town.  We immediately stopped and got a Vietnamese coffee at a little local restaurant.  Vietnamse coffee is very strong coffee with sweetened condensed milk and ice.  SO GOOD!

And once again, we got to sit in kindergarten chairs because that's all they have!

Then we did some shopping in the market.

Helen decided to have a jacket made.  The shop owner took her measurements at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  They then made the jacket from scratch and delivered it to the hotel at 8:00 that evening.  For a total cost of $35!  It was beautiful and fit perfectly!

The vegetable market is now open!

We took a taxi back to the hotel for a total of ($2), and then we all headed to the pool for happy hour.  This is the first pool on this trip that we have had time to use, and it was great.  The water temperature was very nice and the pool side service was very good too.  When the mosquitos came out, we all headed to our room for some snacks and laughs.  Chris and Helen headed out at about 9:00, and when they got back to their room they realized that they had missed the 8:00 alteration appointment.  We all felt so bad, but the tailor came back and finished up Helens jacket.

One of the older employees at the hotel saw Steve's leg and asked him (using sign language) if it was from the war (Vietnam War), Steve told him no, the man proceeded to tell us (using sign language) that he fought in the war and was a gunman.  He was very proud of his service.  It was clear that he was South Vietnamese at the time of the war.

We finished our night with room service; a nice hot bowl of chicken curry and rice.  




The perfect end to a perfect day in Hoi An!