Where to start with Hoi An? This beach town halfway down the coast of Vietnam has taken the prize of being my favorite town thus far on the entire trip and for so many reasons. Being the first official warm, tropical beach town of our trip made it an obvious contender for making it my favorite but the list of endearing qualities only grows from there.
Our first day in Hoi An Betsy and I walked to the beach for sunset. A rather long walk but totally worth the walk. We enjoyed a bowl of quail egg soup on the beach watching the Cham island off in the distance in the Pacific. Night one we explored the Old Quarter of the city which was strewn with multicolored paper hang of lanterns everywhere. At one point in our night we noticed the full moon behind one of the strings of lanterns looking just like another paper bulb. The picture didn't quite come out but it was gorgeous. The markets in the Old Quarter are filled with shops selling everything from art to lanterns to little plastic magnets in the shape of pho bowls. And the custom clothing stores!!!! You can't walk down a block without being asked by at least three vendors trying to make clothes for you. At first this seems irritating but there was such an awesome selection of clothes there it was hard not have a day of shopping. I had two pairs of custom made leather sandals ($28 total), an amazing silk lined pea coat custom tailored ($30), and, as I've already said on facebook, the most amazing item clothing to ever touch my body, a neon pink and purple onesie. I wish I could say that that was custom made but the one on the mannequin fit so well I wore it straight out of the shop. A highlight of night one was eating at one of the most amazing Indian food restaurants of my life.
The only other restaurant to rival this one is actually in the Caribbean of all places. Our friends who joined us there when we went again 3 days later said that even though they have visited India, this was hands down the best Indian food they've ever had. The name of the restaurant was Ganesh and while one the "high end" of cheap backpacking eats ($3-$6 for more food then you can even finish) I would 100% recommend that restaurant to anyone. The naan bread was legitimately as big as a pizza...so dank. Night one ended pretty tamely with drink along the river with some European friends we pulled a table up to.
Day two we met up with Krueger who had rented a motorcycle driver to take him from Hue down to Hoi An and headed straight to the beach. Our first swim in the Pacific coming exactly one month into our travels, couldn't have been better!! The beaches were pretty clean and except for the occasional woman trying to sell us cigarettes, dice or weird useless plastic toys, a super relaxing day. That night we met up with friends for a cheap dinner on the river and met up with a few more at a late night bar called the Volcano. $4 gets you all-you-can drink from 10pm-3am... We've come to learn that Vietnam may truly be one of the cheapest countries in the entire world to drink. A lot of the restaurants in Hoi An sold beer for 3,000 dong which equals about 15 cents a beer...the hooters have officially landed.
Day three: Such an adventure. The kind that pushes you but in end you realize you wouldn't have had it any other way. We woke up just in time to make our breakfast. A quick word about the breakfast at our hostel, the Sunflower Hostel. The breakfast is included in the price of the room and is a huge buffet of made to order eggs, toast, 3 different juices, coffee, tea, fruit, potatoes, stewed tomatoes and various Asian dishes. Best hostel breakfast of the trip hands down! After breakfast we were told by Kruger that him and the two guys we were partying with the night before had rented two motorbikes and we were going to be exploring the city that day. Our first stop was interesting but pretty much just a tour of the surroundings rural neighborhoods leading to a beer stop at a very rusty and unused boat. Made for great photo shoots. Next on the docket we thought we were going to grab food somewhere so with Kruger, Betsy and our new friend Jami (or Skipper as we called him, a Finnish student studying in Shanghai) on one bike and me and our new friend Jacob (an EMS from Berlin) on one bike we took off following Kruger. Jacob and I had no idea where Kruger was taking us and considering that it was a pretty cloudy and windy day the 20 or so minute bike ride felt like an hour. Kruger had taken us to the Marble Mountain which was a gorgeous and extensive temple built into this huge set of cliffs and caves overlooking the entire coast between Da Nang and Hoi An (about a 30 minute distance from one another). When we got to the temple Betsy and I were tired, cold and the hangover wasn't helping. My mood wasn't improved in the least when after finding a restaurant I asked them to show me to the restroom and after being taken down what seemed like a half mile trail of broken glass through some backyards I was taken to an extremely unsympathetic woman who refused to let me pee without paying her 10 cents which I didn't have on me. She wasn't taking any IOU's...so furiously walking back down the trail of glass back to the restaurant I was told to go pee behind a building. The "field" behind the building was a pig pen... The pigs looked as scared as me but the experience did not lighten my mood. After some self meditation and warm coffee we went to explore the Marble Mountain. Gotta hand it to Kruges...freezing our baguettes off on the motorbike to ride to who knows where was totally worth it. The mountain was an elaborate set of caves with shrines and statues built into them. We got to explore for hours and the viewpoints we could hike to on top showed us epic views of the stormy ocean. We spent the sunset on top of Marble Mountain sharing a beer, all in all a great day of exploring. That night we took our new friends to a great restaurant on the river and showed them the "party boat" we discovered night one in Hoi An. The sign next to the boat says free hookah, two for one buckets (the staple drink of SE Asia, a cocktail that fits and is served in a sand pail bucket) and free first shots. So you get on this ghetto looking boat with a disco light and a guy puts on some electronic music and within 30 seconds your on the other side of the mountain 20 feet away..hah! Apparently the restaurant he drops you at supposedly has all that the sign offered but we ended up just riding the boat for the fun of it and running to our favorite bar on that side of the river. Spent the night at this riverside bar that let us DJ and hang out way past closing time.
The next day, aka the day of the epic onesie, was cloudy again but I crawled up the jenky, perpetually empty lifeguard chair on the brag and watched a surfer using the stormy seas to his advantage. It looked like SO much fun! I cannot wait to fulfill my número uno life goal right now which is to learn how to surf. No I shouldn't say, learn how to surf. I'm not trying to stand up once or twice. I'm going to Bali to spend a day or two learning how to surf and then hopefully spending the rest of our two weeks there SURFING. The rest of the day was pretty mild for me, but not for Kruges! After being separated from him all day I found him back at the hostel with a (pardon my French) shit eating grin on his face. He had bought a motorcycle named Helen and intended to ride it down the coast and interior of Vietnam/who knows where else? After lunch with our Hoi An crew, Betsy, Kruges, Jacob, Skipper and myself plus the rad guy who sold him Helen, we went to find a place to practice her. Finding a perfect set of dirt road out of town, Kruges took some laps on Helen getting used to her and Betsy and I took the opportunity to try out the motorbikes. That's motorbike, not motorcycle hah. As in the same ones we got denied from in Pai :) we did totally fine, it is so easy and, yes, right as I was getting off mine I did drop the bike on my own leg. Haha...baby steps.... The night ended with a goodbye to Jacob and then 30 cent beers with Mike, the previous owner of Helen, and the two badass (!) girls he had traveled up Vietnam with. These girls Julie and Jessica took it upon themselves to buy motorcycles in Saigon (the number one craziest city in the world I'm convinced to ride a motorcycle. No joke - 11 million people living in Saigon / 36 million motorcycles), learn how to use them there and ride up the coast. So insane! Badass Bay Area chicas! The night wended fairly early but not before before hustled by a woman selling clay, animal shaped whistles into buying 10 whistles for three bucks. We were DEFINITELY everyone's favorite (or most hated)table at the restaurant after that because of course we had to practice them all right then and there!
The next day was just a day of waiting to get on the night bus to Nha Trang so we chilled out next to our pool all day. Hoi An is still my personal favorite town of the entire trip. The friends we met, the beaches, the food, the onesies (!), the purchase of Helen...I would be honored to come back and teach here some day. I'm undoubtably leaving a piece of my heart in this town for sure.
~ Binksy
