October 27,

When we woke up, it was a socked in day. Overcast and had just rained a bit and supposed to rain off and on all day. This is what the weather app had predicted… What do you Know?!? They called it right, for once! LOL! We went to breakfast around 0830. I had the crepe with sliced apple (and I took the last of our PB to add… it was yummy 🙂 ) ; a banana; and coffee. Jeff had the crepe with banana (he had ordered mango, so surprise) ; watermelon; and ginger tea. Then we went back to our room and had a chill morning.

Jeff went out on Clink to try and get money. The only ATM on the island was still broke down!! He said he went to a hotel with an ATM sign, but they only did money exchange. But out of options, he went ahead and did an exchange of our last 20 dollar bill. (All we have left of American money is now three-10 dollar bills.) Anyway, we have enough to pay for our activity tonight. We had a very light lunch of corn nuts. Then watched some You tube.

Around 1540, we went downstairs to meet up with our ride. We are going to a Vietnamese Cooking Class! Yeah!!! It is through Tam Cooking Class, Vietnamese Authentic & Traditional Cuisine. Tam is our friendly and passionate instructor. She and her husband also run – An Homestay Cat Ba – a two room homestay for tourists.

Class begins after introductions. Tam goes over what we wanted to prepare; explains each dish showing us the ingredients for each – as she has them all laid out on a big center island table; and gave us a print out of the recipes. So now we get to work chopping and prepping those ingredients for our dishes. We made Fried Spring rolls with a dipping sauce. Next was Bun Cha. There a many types of Bun Cha. We made a seasoned grilled pork, and pork mix rolled in a leaf and fried. These were served with rice noodles, fresh herbs (coriander/cilantro, basil, Vietnamese balm – like lemon balm back home, and Vietnamese Perila – has purple color on underside of the leaf) and the dipping sauce. We also made Green Mango Salad. Then for dessert: Sui Din – Sticky Rice made into a ball with filling with Ginger Soup and Egg Coffee. Whew!!! It was great and way too much food for the two of us! When we sat to eat, Tam, gave us a shot of rice wine she makes. She had six or seven different kinds. I had the purple rice wine and Jeff the apple. The class and supper lasted until 1900. What a blast! Tam ordered us a taxi back to our hotel.

Once we settled in our room, I called my mother on WhatsApp and caught her up on our ventures. Then we did another WhatsApp with an extended family member. Lastly we did a Zoom link with our church family back home. What a fun day, even though it stayed rainy!