This is a series in which I describe a typical Tuesday during our travels. This will give you an idea of what we do on an average day – sometimes exciting and sometimes mundane.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017: Hội An, Vietnam
8:13am – We wake up and make some instant coffee. (the 3-in-1 coffee packets from Vietnam are my favorite!). Check emails, social media, and send texts to friends and family who are just getting ready for bed in the US.
9:46am – Jon makes me my usual breakfast: a bánh mì bread roll, sliced, toasted, and spread with Laughing Cow cheese, topped with a slice of tomato and a poached egg. It may sound a bit odd, but I ate this almost every morning (aside from days we woke up early to do something).
I know it’s not the prettiest, but this sure was delicious!
10:02am – I wash dishes and then take a shower, watching out for lizards that frequently make their way into our bathroom. We’ve learned to love the lizards, since they keep the bug count low!
10:15am – Relaxing and hanging out at the apartment. We alternate writing in journals, reading, working on blogs, playing video games, and watching TV shows.
3:28pm – After being lazy for the morning and early afternoon, it’s time to leave. We get on our scooter and ride to Trà Quế Village (hereinafter Tra Que), which is a small island located on the outskirts of Hoi An. The village is known for farming fresh vegetables. We drive around and look for the meeting point for our excursion. We have signed up for a farm visit with a local through Backstreet Academy.
We worked on half of one row, planting spinach.
4:09pm – After some confusion on where to pick us up, our host (Mrs. Hong) and interpreter (Hi – I’m not sure if that’s how it’s spelled but his name is ‘Hi’!) arrive. We follow them to our host’s home and leave our scooter parked in front of her house. Mrs. Hong takes us back to her plot of land where she grows vegetables. We then take turns preparing the soil, digging holes, picking sprouts from one section and planting in the other, and watering. All of this farming was done using traditional Vietnamese methods and Hi (a college student practicing his English) explained why things were done the way they were.
Using the traditional watering cans is more difficult than it looks!
5:05pm – We finished the gardening and returned to Mrs. Hong’s house. She set up a table outside in the courtyard and brought out plates of ingredients for our next activity. We proceeded to make two local dishes: Tôm hữu (leaves wrapped around a shrimp and then tied together with a slim green onion) and spring rolls (shrimp, pork, greens, and onion wrapped in a light rice paper and dipped in a spicy sauce).
We really enjoyed getting to see how farmers in Vietnam live and work!
The only weird thing about eating these tôm hữu? The shrimp still had their tails, legs, and everything else attached! They said that was normal!
5:51pm – We said goodbye to Mrs. Hong and Hi, got on our scooter, and rode back to our apartment. I took another shower (it’s really hot and sticky!) and then Jon prepared dinner. He made vegetable and rice stir fry, which we ate sitting on the bed and watching YouTube videos.
10:30pm – Get in bed and read until I fall asleep!
This was our usual set-up for meals: sitting on the bed with our phone to watch a TV show or movie.
*Note: The use of accent marks is inconsistent for a reason. I found it easier to refer to the cities by the Anglicized version, since this is what most of you will recognize. For the lesser-known places, food, or people, I’ve kept with the accent marks since this is what we got used to while traveling.