We leave Hue to go to Hoi An, didn’t realise until we arrived, this is where all the photos you see from Vietnam are from. So, for me, this looked the most like Vietnam with the laterns, boats, and rice fields enroute. Below are a couple of photos on the way.
As I already mentioned, the hotels on this trip have not been great, so 5 of us moved to a much better one! Mulberry Silk Collection Village! I got a great deal as when we arrived, our rooms were upgraded to suites, and my room was due to my hotels.com level. I received a free bbq meal and afternoon tea!
Hoi An is famous for its tailoring, and this hotel had its own silk village, which we got a free tour of while we stayed. I wasn’t aware that silk worms life cycles less than 40 days!
The silk worms you see in the photos below are only days old. They sleep for 1 day and then eat for 3 days and continue that cycle. They feed them Mullberry leaves as food and interesting when the worms have their heads up they are asleep. Here at the Mullberry Silk Village, they have yellow and white worms.
1 cacon can make 600m of silk. To start the process, they boil the cocoon at 70c and by the afternoon can spin the thread.
The worms silva is what creates the cocoon.
The raw silk doesn’t require killing the worm as all manual and isn’t an easy process.
We also saw their Weaving loom machine that uses bobin and weaves both ways. This machine was invented in 1935. The second loom is more skillful, with the weights being adjusted to create the pattern on the fabric.
There are 3 types of silk:
– Taffata silk – multiple threads
– Finer silk – really thin
– Raw silk – slightly thicker
The last part of the tour was now to identify if it is real silk or not. She gave us samples to guess from look and feel. She then showed us its how they burn that really shows. Pure Silk stops burning once the flame is removed, whereas Synthetic will carry on burning.
Hoi An old quarter
As mentioned previously, I loved Hoi An. This is what I expected all of Vietnam to look like! The old quarter is closed to vehicles. However, there are still bikes to be careful of.
We had two birthdays on the trip and went to Tiger Tiger for boogie. However that day it rained so much the river over flowed and once I got out the taxi I had to pull my dress up and wade through the water (half way up my calf) to the bar. Where it was busy, and I was trying not to get wet, I didn’t get my phone out. By the time I came out of the bar, the water had gone.
Oodles of Noodles
As you will know by now, reading this, g-adventures tend to support projects across the globe. This one in Hoi An is called Oodles of Noodles and is part of the streets organisation. They take children from the streets and train them in hospitality and catering with lodging, training, and English lessons. They will then support them in finding jobs across the country.
We were taken through how to make the noodles, and then we all had a go! They also served a bowl of Noodles for us that were really flavoursome.
Latern Making
Really enjoyed this latern making and a lovely keepsake to take home! The frame was already built, we choose the fabric we wanted and then started the class. We glued the fabric to 4 stokes while stretching it out. Continued on the opposite side and then once dried the two other sides, too. Then cut carefully to tidy it up. Lastly, we choose the fabric to go round the top and bottom of the latern and the tassle.
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