Top 13 must-try experiences in Vietnam for international visitors
(QNO) - Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel publisher in America, has just suggested the Top 13 must-try experiences when visiting Vietnam, including cooking classes in Hoi An and exploring My Son Sanctuary in Quang Nam province.
Cooking courses
According to Lonely Planet, learning to make soups, stir-fries and salads on a cooking course in Hoi An city and other localities in Vietnam is a very interesting experience.
There’s no better souvenir to bring home from Vietnam than being able to prepare your own Vietnamese feast.
Indeed, Vietnamese food arguably has a bigger dinner-party cachet than more familiar Thai cuisine.
Up and down the country, you’ll find cooking courses that start with a fragrant market trip to buy fresh ingredients and local herbs and end with a banquet of the dishes you’ve prepared, covering everything from summer rolls to pho noodle soup.
Hoi An is the most popular destination for aspiring chefs – small and personal Green Bamboo Cooking School is highly recommended. There are also good cooking schools in Hue, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
My Son Sanctuary
While travelers mob the regal assembly halls, pagodas and historic homes of Hoi An, nearby My Son offers a calmer vision of Vietnam’s rich and layered past – particularly if you come in the afternoon.
The big lure here is the atmospheric collection of UNESCO-listed temples surrounded by jungle in a loop of the sacred Thu Bon river.
Sharing many architectural features with the Khmer temples of Cambodia and Thailand, these crumbling, red-brick shrines were built between the 4th and 14th centuries by the kingdom of the Cham people.
If you use Hoi An as a base for exploring My Son, set aside a day to explore the nearby Cham Islands.