ArtFoodCulture Retreat Vietnam with AugustWren
March is one of the best seasons to be in Hoi An. I schedule many of my Retreats for this season. We were especially blessed by the lack of tourists this time. Jennifer Orkin Lewis, the guest artist for this retreat and some of the guests arrived a few days early. They relaxed by the pool, and explored the local area before the retreat started. It was exciting to get the updates, whilst I was with my previous group, finishing up the first Retreat of 2021.
In China and South Korea Corona virus was hitting hard, and Vietnam had closed the boarders and stopped issuing visas to these countries by the time we had arrived. This meant we would benefit from the quieter streets. Night time in Hoi An can be particularly congested with extra large tour groups from these countries, and this was the first time in years I have been able to stroll without the stress of too many people.
We all enjoyed our first night in one of Hoi An’s historical buildings and longest running Vietnamese Restaurants . A foreigner friendly restaurant, and an easy introduction to Vietnamese food before we spend the next 10 days exploring local restaurants and street food. A dessert of Che (sweet legume soup) at the night market finished our meal before heading back to the Villa for an early night.
Our first day in Hoi An started with blissfully empty streets. We did a walking tour of the old town with our local guide, Lap. We lunched at the famous Banh Mi Phuong, and visited to local flower market for some inspiration for our afternoon art session with Jennifer Orkin Lewis aka August Wren
Art sessions by the pool, in our Villa after a fun day out and about. The owners at our Villa were so accomodating with our requests, and provided all the extra things we needed for a painting session. Water changes for our paint jars, and Vietnamese iced coffee, or locally made mineral water and juices. Bliss.
Today we explored the historic buildings of Hoi An with our local guide. Hoi An has a facisnating history, that includes merchants, and a melting pot of ethic groups. We spent time in one of the Chinese assembly halls founded in 1620.
We always lunch at Streets Restaurant (17 Le Loi). It is a social initiative restaurant that helps disadvantaged kids train in the hospitality industry. As a chef myself, I understand how important it is in having good training to secure a position in a fair and healthy work place. The training here is good, and the food delicious. Service is impeccable. Please visit if you ever travel to Hoi An, and support these kids.
An afternoon art session at the Villa was a perfect way to spend the afternoon
Today was my 50th Birthday, and I happened to be going to my favourite Sinh To in the world. Tam is the owner and I have been visiting her for 10 years, sometimes twice a day. The best coffee in the world, and then there is the best juice, and the best fruit drinks, and the best tea, and, my gosh….I could go on about her kindness, but that is for another time. Lap enjoys a mixed fruit drink, with loads of crushed ice. Good choice Lap!
Next we headed to the local market, again one of my favourite places in the world. I am particularly chuffed that I get waves and hellos as I walk through on my own when I first arrive again in town. I think I have eaten at, and sketched every vendor in this market, and many more than once. I have had an accident here, and been helped, Ive been yelled at, shooed out, and Ive been given seats and cold drinks as I sketch. The thing I am most proud of is that I get the locals prices here, and when a vendor tries to not give me the locals price, the vendors have great long conversations with each other until order is restored. My only shame is I simply am hopeless at speaking Vietnamese, but I speak chef, I speak fruit and veg vendor, I speak woman worker, I speak butcher, I speak fish monger, and I speak entrepreneur. It brings me great joy to take a group of foreigners through here.
We purchased fruit at the market. Some of the group tasted certain fruits for the first time. A perfect still life for our afternoon art session.
Mi Son, the ancient Cham ruins a short drive from Hoi An. The rain came down, the tourists stayed away and we enjoyed the sanctuary in the cool tropical jungle surrounds.
Free day, followed by a visit to the local Herb Village. A foot bath, gardening lesson, rice flour making session, rice paper making and finally a delicate seafood lunch. Perfect.
Cooking classes at my friends home. She has worked so hard over the years I have known her. I first met her when she was renting her rooms out in her house for $10 a night, and was sleeping on a mattress in the living room. Now take a look at what she has built! Her love for cooking shines in her classes.
The next 2 days were scheduled to be at a Co Tu Village. However, due to renovations on the luxury huts, and the alternative being the communal house with hard mattresses in the highlands, the artists decided they would prefer to stay at the Villa and do some intensive painting sessions. I was hesitant to change the plans for them, but it was a consensus! I did manage to drag most of them out to a small local restaurant on an island near Old Town for dinner that night. We dinned with the locals, and they saw the other side of town which is one of my favourite places! Afterwards, we went to a fancy foreigner targeted cafe for chocolate brownies and cheesecake!. We travelled into town via one of the Hoi An Electric cars, open air and great fun! Then hustled for a taxi to get us back. I guess there was a tad of cultural immersion here…. even though it was not with the excellent hospitality of the Co Tu villagers. My group had done well up to this point with eating street food, and with participation in local activities. Corona virus was on the news and people were starting to feel like they wanted to be closer to home. Our usual excitement of being in a far away place, do fabulously interesting things was being eroded by the impending fear.
Our last day was in Danang as planned. What wasn’t planned was that the day before Corona virus free Vietnam got its first infected patient in 3 weeks. A plane load of Brits arrived in Hanoi, and some of them had made their way to Hoi An. The Vietnamese government had rapidly put measures in place, and placed them all in quarantine. This meant we were as safe as can be! Thankyou Vietnamese government for your vigilance. However, it also meant that the streets, hotels and restaurants were near empty by the time we arrived in Danang. Quiet an unusual sight for Vietnams 5th largest city! I have to say though, the coconuts on the beach were as delicious as always, and that seafood dinner. Incredible.
We said farewell at dinner. Life long friends and memories had been made. Some of us were leaving early in the morning, some wanted to sleep in. The usual buffet breakfast had changed to a la carte on our last morning. I choose fruit and bread. I had been eating Vietnamese street food breakfast for over a month now, and was due to start another Retreat in Hoi An in a few days, so a little familiar childhood food was welcomed.
The next Retreat group and my last until June, were due to depart from their home countries on this day. I was ready to meet them back in Hoi An in a few days. Many of the guests where considering whether they would indeed attend or not, after having read my email outlining the measures that the Vietnamese government were taking. Other countries had not yet implemented “stay in place” orders, so at this time, the Vietnamese governments quarantine procedures and tracking of cases seemed rather forceful. Little did we all know that much much worse was due to come to our own countries. The Covid-19 situation was changing rapidly worldwide now. By the end of the day, all of the next group had decided to not attend. For some this was a wise decision. UK residents where banned the next day by the Vietnamese government, and one guest was due to come from the USA was 85 years old. Decisions needed to be made with care. The WHO had yet to declare a Pandemic, and the Australian government was still advising “travel with normal safety precautions”, so my guests compulsory Comprehensive travel Insurance would still stand. As always, travel insurance is mandatory on all Art Food Culture Retreats.
I didn’t know it yet, but this was going to be the last time in a long while that ArtFoodCulture was going to be hosting a Retreat in Vietnam. What an adventure it was.
