Making homemade aromatic oil in central Vietnam (Written by Sei)

Hello everyone. I'm Sei (the husband), who deeply loves exploring local Vietnam. I went on a 2-night, 3-day trip to central Vietnam. It's the ancient capital of Hue, home to the Nguyen Dynasty, which first unified Vietnam. For accommodation, we stayed at Lang Co Beach, a hidden gem closer to Da Nang.

Ho, relaxing at the inn. The beach right in front.

You can stay in a cottage with a balcony, about 50 square meters in size, overlooking the sea, for 3,000 to 5,000 yen or so per night.

The grounds are relaxed and quiet, with the sound of the waves as the background music. Clear, transparent sea, a beautiful beach where the sand squeaks underfoot, an old-fashioned, beautiful beach without a single piece of trash.

Behind the beach lies a lake that has seen almost no tourist development. If you ride a bike along the lakeshore, you can even catch a glimpse of daily life in the fishing village by the lake.

Even the way the ruined steel-framed buildings are decaying looks so cool. Best of all, there are absolutely no souvenir shops aimed at Western tourists or Western-style restaurants here, and the streets are left just as they are, full of ordinary rural life — it's a very simple, cozy area to be in.

Hotel breakfast.

After the meal, we relaxed and enjoyed a cup of coffee. On the first day, Ho hurt her foot on the beach, so the next day, the two of us rented a bike and went touring around the lake for about 30–40 km on the way to the pharmacy. The bike rental fee was 200,000 VND per day, which is about 1,000 yen.

As I ride my motorcycle, here and there I come across roadside stalls with distillation equipment for making homemade aroma oil.

It seems to be a local specialty around here. I filmed a video of the distillation process. At first I thought someone was distilling local Vietnamese liquor on the roadside, but it turned out to be aroma oil. When I later asked a Vietnamese friend about it, they told me that local liquor is actually made in the same way. Somehow it made me quite envious to see that this kind of small-scale manufacturing still survives in various places even today. Well then, see you all next time. Expat Life Ranking