Hoi An — KK's Gap Year

The art, the nightlife, the amazing street food...and my favorite city in Asia so far...Hoi An.

On the heels of an exciting time in Saigon, I flew up north to Danang, a city primarily known for its proximity to the DMZ (and an R&R site for American soldiers) during the Vietnam war. My dad was stationed near here during the war and has a number of crazy stories, none of which I think he'd appreciate me mentioning here. Maybe in another post...

After spending just one day in Danang and seeing its beautiful beaches, I caught a bus 30 minutes south to a small city on the sea called Hoi An. And my new favorite city in Asia!!!

Hoi An is small, cute, and artsy and well known for its hundreds of tailors who will make custom clothing for you for dirt cheap prices. I strongly considered having a wedding dress made, but between the stomach ailments that continued to plague me counterbalanced by the heaping portions of Vietnamese noodles I've been eating every day, it was hard to get an accurate measurement of what size I'll be by August!

Hoi An feels like the best kept secret in Asia. All my friends told me it was a must-see, but it didn't get a lot of ink in guidebooks and it's not a major transportation hub. It feels like just the kind of place that will be overrun with tourists in five years, but right now is a thriving little thimble of art and nightlife and home to some of the best bahn mi sandwich you'll ever have

I had only budgeted two days' worth of time in Hoi An, but fell so in love with this charming city that I ended up extending my stay to 5 days. It's where I took the first of many cooking classes, learned to ride (and crash) a motorbike, and realized the best way to learn the lay of the land is on a bicycle.

My hotel rented single speed bicycles so the first thing I did upon arrival was hop on a saddle and tool around the city. There's a river running through town with many cute little wooden footbridges and no surprise they all led to massage parlors! I was already batting 1.000 for days in Asia having a massage and I was determined not to break the streak. For about $6, you can get a one hour foot massage sitting by the river with a nice breeze almost lulling you to sleep.

Hoi An is where I first learned to ride a motorbike. I called it a motorcycle, but a few Harley Davidson-riding friends were quick to point out that it's more like a glorified scooter. I'm fairly comfortable riding a bicycle in New York City and in fact it's my main mode of transportation for both commuting to work and getting around the city thanks to NYC's awesome bike share program. So I was pretty confident that riding a motorbike was going to be a breeze. Everything was going swimmingly as I strapped on my helmet (that looked like it was manufactured in 1975) and sped off down the road. There wasn't a lot of traffic and no one really stops in Vietnam anyway, so things were as smooth as silk until I had to stop to get gas. And that's when things got a little hairy. When you dismount a bicycle, you don't realize how much you tip it to the side in order to clear the saddle height in order to put your foot on the ground. Well, let me tell you what happens when you tip a several hundred pound motorbike to the side. Yeah. Inertia. And pavement. Fortunately, I came out of the incident mostly unscathed except for my pride, but the Vietnamese gas attendant lady was about to split her side laughing so much. I made it to the beach on the motorbike and it was actually easy and fun once you got moving. The hard part was stopping, but in Vietnam, traffic signals are merely suggestions, so I figured it was safer to keep moving through an intersection than to dump the bike! Things got a little hairy when I came back from the beach during rush hour! Boy, was it nerve racking! I did actually have to stop several times and other motorbikes stopped within inches of me! I was so nervous to take off with all of the traffic swirling around me but there was only one way out of it, so I revved the engine and faked some confidence as best I could!

My bicycle didn't look exactly like this.  But this is what you're up against in traffic. — My bicycle didn't look exactly like this. But this is what you're up against in traffic.

Hoi An, quickly becoming the city of firsts for me, was also where I took my first cooking class. Iearned how to grind rice into "rice milk", which is the basis for so many Vietnamese dishes including my favorite dish of all time, Bánh xèo, a crispy crepe-like pancake made of rice milk, coconut milk, and turmeric. Once you've crisped up the edges, you fold in all kinds of green leaves such as wasabi leaf, fish leaf (it smells absolutely disgusting, but really does add a delicious, salty element), thai basil, mint, bean sprouts, and then either pork belly or shrimp. You can think of it almost like a Vietnamese burrito. And then you dunk it in a sweet and sour vinegar-based sauce. The flavors run the gamut from sweet and salty to rich and vibrant. This is one recipe that I will definitely be making back home!

Bánh xèo.  Made it myself! — Bánh xèo. Made it myself!

Another Vietnamese staple that was served nearly everywhere as an appetizer is the fresh spring roll. Sometimes in the States, we call them "summer rolls" and they're differentiated from fried spring rolls by that fact that they're not fried. The wrapper is made from rice paper, which is made from rice milk, which is made from regular rice, water, and a lot of elbow grease. My cooking instructor literally made me put my nose to the grindstone. The inside of a fresh spring roll can be filled with anything you've got on hand, but traditionally carrot, cucumber, mint, basil, rice noodles, and either pork belly or shrimp. Super refreshing with an ice cold Tiger beer on a hot day!

Vietnamese fresh spring roll and homemade peanut sauce

Beef noodle salad.  Yum. — Beef noodle salad. Yum.

At the morning market, loading up before cooking class

One of the main reasons for coming to Southeast Asia was to be able to complete SCUBAOpen Water certification. My friend Cori and I had completed the classroom portion and confined water dives (in a swimming pool) back in New York, and we plan to complete the open water portion in Thailand in June. But, I ran out of things to do in Hoi An but wanted to stay longer, so I signed up for an "introductory" dive. On an intro dive, you basically do all the things you do while regular SCUBA diving, except that you don't go as deep and you have an instructor holding on to you the entire time. I was a bit bummed by the lack of autonomy at first, but then realized it was awesome! It was like having a dive butler show you around to all the places I wouldn't have been comfortable getting close to on my own.

Unfortunately, I forgot to use the one piece of equipment that I bought specifically for this trip, which is a red filter for the GoPro. Underwater at depth, a lot of the colors wash out, so adding a filter on the camera really helps. This is why the photo above looks crazy green.

I can't wait to get back to Hoi An. The vibe of the whole place from its custom tailor shops to the soft glow of paper lanterns above the wooden bridges was so enchanting, that I am truly in the debt of everyone who told me to go there. But let's keep that little secret just between us. ;)

Bánh xèo. Made it myself!