Hoi An

When i arrived in Hoi An i was stupidly excited, i heard it was one of the best places to be in Vietnam with the ultimate vibes. I was dropped off at the bus stop pretty far from the centre so i decided to just take a walk around, stop for some lunch and a coffee. There was a tiny cafe on a corner, the paint on the walls were cracked and the cafe had a wood effect all the way round, the owner was working alone, probably as she did most days as it was small and empty when i was there. She had her head rested on the table watching Netflix or something on her phone, you would find alot of locals doing this during work; passing the time until they were needed or had a few customers in. I had a black coffee and a few home made veg spring rolls but to my dis-advantage they were made of mushrooms and anyone who knows me understands my hate for them so i just picked them around and tried to eat the outsides. I paid for my lunch and jumped into a taxi, id been recommended The Sunflower hostel before by friends at home, i heard it was quite a party hostel so i planned to have a couple days there then chill out abit. That didn’t go so much to plan.

Once id got into the hostel i checked in, was given a key and found my way to my room. I took the bottom bunk because i kept in mind the fact i may be drunk later that night and climbing up to the top bunk might not be the greatest of ideas. Another reason i chose that bed was because it was right next to the balcony door, easy for a cig and a beer in the sun. There was a tiny shop opposite the hostel so after chucking my bag on the bed and putting my phone on charge i ran over to grab a couple of beers so i could chill in my room and sort through my luggage, none of my clothes had been in for laundry cleaning yet and it was just making the rest of them filthy, especially after my trek in Sapa. Mud everywhere. It felt great knowing my clothes would be clean the next morning but i decided i wanted to bargain hunt and get something fresh for that night. My maps.me told me the walk to the Old Town would take about 15 minutes so i waited for my phone to charge and I set off. I had a quick walk around, strong minded on the idea of getting something fresh to wear and then heading back out once the sun had died down. I was pulled into tailor made clothing stores and called over by staff in restaurants in hope I’d buy my lunch there. I heard of a local attraction – The Japanese bridge; Cau Chua Pagoda and it was just around the corner so I thought I’d go take a look and see what the fuss was about, it was beautifully detailed and lit up later at night. I ended up purchasing some orange and white trousers with a small top so I could easily tan, tourists uses cycle bikes to get around Hoi An which hostels usually offered for free, the walk ways in the Old Town were always busy, packed with locals and shop keepers trying to sell whatever they could, everything being authentic or handmade.

After getting back to The Sunflower and ultimately getting ready to go back to where id just come from, i was feeling famished. There was a beautiful Vietnamese restaurant with purple lanterns in the Old Town which i had noticed so i was determined to go there, on my way i was distracted by one of the locals who owned a small caf, big enough to fit around four people inside and a few on the out. She offered a good conversation which i had lacked since being here and the nicest mango smoothie i had ever tried. A huge bush with purple flowers hung over the entrance ever so slightly and wrapped around the left sided of the wall, orange lanterns were lit and hung up all around; this gave a nice touch to the flowers and a charming feel to the dainty little bar. The kids were as beautiful as ever in Vietnam, a little girl seemed to be fascinated by me, just staring until her dad eventually called her over.

I continued my stroll until i found the cute restaurant i passed previously, i chose to sit inside finally feeling dressed to the part, i chose a sweet potato and dumpling curry with rice; i’m not a fan of dumplings but someone on the opposite table had the same and it smelt delicious. The street was lit up and the buildings looked amazing reflecting multiple coloured lanterns, some walls were painted an indigo blue and others a sunflower yellow, these combined brilliantly to work with the vibe Hoi An gave.

After arriving back to the hostel i was finally in the mood to party, i hadn’t met anyone yet so i thought to go straight to the bar downstairs and see what was going on. It was 50,000 Vietnamese dong for unlimited spirits for 2 hours (£1.64)! The choice was between rum, vodka and something else which you definitely couldn’t get in a bar in England, once you reached about 9pm shutters which you wouldn’t have realised were there closed you in leaving just a door to get by the pool or go back up to the dorms, the walls had spray paint everywhere of all kinds of shit and people were playing beer pong, dancing around and getting boozy as. I had a couple of drinks, sitting on my phone with a cig not really being sure who to approach. I noticed 3 girls looking the same kinda age to me so i decided to head over after a small amount of alcohol courage, i asked if i could take a seat and have a few drinks with them, one of them had spent her day in hospital after breaking her toe coming off a ped. They were French Canadian girls all travelling South East Asia at just 18! Elenah, Sen and Marilou. They played a massive part of my time in Hoi An, they were planning for an early night due to her foot but there’s nothing i’m better at than persuading people to drink. We were drinking fast, meeting more and more travellers as the night went on and partying way to hard. We met an Auzzie guy called Owen who had the best sense of humour, we spent our entire night getting fucked up, smoking what we thought was Vietnamese weed, in and out the pool and downing way to many vodka shots. When the deal at Sunflower ends people tended to go next door to a club called Hair Of the Dog, there were poles to dance on, a DJ set and balloons the size of 4 footballs being sold for a couple of quid. You would occasionally see people trying to do their balloons solo and getting to the point of having a brief fit on the floor. Everyone there spent the whole night shaking their asses and keeping the vibe going, around 5am we all decided we might find another club, there being about 20 of us at this point, maybe not being conscious of the time, we called it a night.. me and the girls planned for a trip into the Old Town the next day so i think it was probably a good idea to get the few hours sleep we had.

The next morning i collecting my clean clothes and got ready, meeting those 3 in their room to laugh about the night before and discuss whatever happened that alcohol might have stolen from our memory. We headed out for breakfast, having a slow walk due to Elenas foot but in all fairness it gave us more time to take in the scenery. We walked in from a different way i had the day before so it was nice to see the town from another angle, we had steamed veg with rice and soy sauce and some tiger beers. We checked out a few shops then grabbed a taxi to Cua Dai Beach to chill, read and get in the sea, it was ridiculously warm but there was a noticeable amount of litter which took that nice beach feel away. Me and Elena went and grabbed some lunch while Sen and Marilou sunbathed, we only had a grilled sandwich as anything near the beach sells pretty limited food unless you wanna risk eating the seafood. A couple hours flew by and we headed back, not knowing how the day had gone.

I decided to chill out a while in my room, talking to everyone back home and replying to messages i’d missed before getting ready to have a repeat of the night before.. and it was, but a whole lot messier. Even more people checked into the hostel which made the night twice as epic, in all honesty i don’t remember a great deal but i’m pretty sure this night we ended up in a different bar after the 50,000 dong deal had gone out the window, i was with a few people, another English couple id met along the way who were awesome to hang out with. The next day i remembered almost nothing atall, i knew we were with people from Aus and all over, you just have to go downstairs and hope you didn’t piss anyone off or embarrass yourself to much which would be very hard to do as almost no one would judge anything out there. I went out on my own to find somewhere to eat and possibly book a bus to the next place, I chose a quiet restaurant just a few blocks down and had another curry, one of the best yet but that could’ve been my hungover taste buds playing tricks on me. I didn’t want to miss Ho Chi Minh so I thought about booking a bus straight there and then I could work my way slightly up north again before heading to Cambodia, the bus was about £24 and took 24 hours leaving that afternoon. I packed my things and gave my key into reception, still having a paid night left but checking out earlier than planned, feeling I’d seen a fair bit of Hoi Ans towns. I brought some snacks for the long ass journey, cigs and a ton of water, I was speaking to the girls while waiting for my bus to arrive, talking about how much fun we’d had over the last few days. We were sat by the entrance; taxi doors closing and loud voices. I could easily tell by the conversation they were about to check in, maybe 9 guys came through, two came over to us straight away; Jono and Mase. One of my first questions were “I recognise you, where ya from?” The question was backfired and when I saw the reaction after I replied Southampton I had a good feeling over me, I knew I had to bin off the bus and party with people who really knew how too, after all no one does it like the English. All of them lived elsewhere but had spent the last few years studying in Southampton which included Alex, Rhys and Joe. There were also two guys from London they had met along their travels; Harry and Steve. All of them seemed pretty decent and I felt sad about leaving the girls so I spoke to the receptionist, explained I changed my mind and got ready for another afternoon of booze. We sat by the pool, chilled out and got to know eachother over beers and vodka, Owen the Aussie guy from the prior couple of nights was still around, he was great company and so chill, turns out some Australians really are up for it just as much as us.

I came downstairs the next morning to check out and Mase invited me to the next hostel they were heading too, 10 minutes down the road but with a nicer pool and a tad less crazy which was what I needed so I took the offer, squeezing into the taxi with the lads to Hoi An City Backpackers. We checked into the hostel, had some beers and met up the Scottish lad we had met a few nights before and a guy from Canada called Brook. We decided that day we would go to An Bang beach with a speaker, good conversation and to enjoy some cocktails, the beach bar behind us was quirky and cheap so it was ideal, the only thing that wasn’t ideal was Mason bringing the first round of cocktails back from the bar and letting every last one soak into the sand. Within about 30 seconds the sky changed dramatically, all different shades of grey and the clouds moving faster than I’d ever seen before, it was pretty remarkable to say the least.

We all ran to the bar and continued to party in torrential rain, I KID YOU NOT there were two and three year olds running wild with bottled beer shouting “tiger, tiger” before being chucked around the pool by all the tourists, their parents enjoying the entire setting of the evening. It was getting pretty late and we were wasted so we headed back to get ready for Hair Of The Dog to end the night, again the night was full of spirits, balloons and ass shaking; the music the Vietnamese played would get your hips moving and leave you in a ridiculous amount of sweat. Me and Mase called it a night and attempted to walk back, not contemplating how far it actually was on foot, two Vietnamese teenagers actually had the audacity to drive up behind us on their ped and slap my butt. I was half horrified and half thankful they weren’t trying to mug me but I take everything with a pinch of salt. The locals here were quite harmless though, it was the country I’d always felt my safest.

The days are pretty foggy from here, probably getting a couple of them mixed up but I know we spent a couple of days just chilling at the hostel, we met a couple from New Zealand with a real expensive camera so we all went mad for that trying to ensure we actually had some pictures together after staying in a group for a while. We all spent those last couple of days chilling and having an absolute blast before I decided it to book the next flight out of Vietnam and into Cambodia; I don’t regret missing as much of Vietnam as I did, I’m glad I didn’t rush and I know I’ll be back someday soon, I couldn’t have met better people throughout my trip so far. The flight and transfer to the airport was booked in the hostel as a package, something I wouldn’t recommend as it’ll always be more expensive. The sun was beaming for my last day and the hostel pool was a sun trap. I said my goodbyes hoping it wasn’t the last time I’d see these lot. The transfer taxi I shared with another girl, she told me all about Cambodia and what I should go and visit, I felt sad and kinda withdrawn; not realising until now just how good Vietnam was and how much I’d miss everyone I’d met so far. We stayed together in the airport until we had to separate to get to our gates, I had my first mouthful of meat in over 2 weeks in a Costa coffee; a chicken sub. Something about airport food always felt safer than anything abroad, especially in a third world country.

And before I knew it I was off, jetting over to the next place – not knowing for another two and a half months that Vietnam would be my favourite part of travelling and a country I will go back to time and time again.