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After a couple of fun-filled and hectic days in Ho Chi Minh it was time to move up the coast and relax for a few days, next stop Hoi An! Hopped a flight to Da Nang and our pickup was there to take us to our hotel, the obviously named Green Field (it is painted a shade of green I had never known existed, and it is probably visible from Space...haha...). With it being a pretty decent whirlwind trip to that point we had decided ahead of time to spend four solid days here, to relax and more importantly celebrate my birthday! More details on that to come...
It was dark and raining slightly when we arrived, so after checking in we grabbed a taxi into town and had a bite to eat...the following morning we got up and strolled downtown (about a 10-15 min. walk) and dove into the local market to check on the deals...Hoi An is a beautiful town; really laid back and great place to just walk around soaking in the sites without the hard sell as seen in other places. There are tons of restaurants and drinking holes, separated mostly by tailor shops...oh yes, time
Le Cake
Unbelievable...haha... (KC)for a new suit! This was certainly one of the things I had wanted to do on this trip, and this is the town for it. We checked out a few places (there are reportedly around 500 shops in Hoi An) before choosing one that seemed decent, and then it was time to pick the fabrics... I was looking for something trad and formal so fortunately it didn't take all that long to choose the material for the suit, then it was the colour of silk for the lining followed by fabrics for the shirts (of course!). After some haggling it was time for the measurements, and then we were told to come back the following day for the fitting...unbelievable! Rest of the day was spent exploring the local art shops, the Japanese Covered Bridge and stopping for a pint and a bite to eat...again relaxing!
That night we found a great bar to hang in, a place called Before & Now, and as most places in town close early this was exactly what we needed... The decor is fantastic, all sorts of pop-art on the walls; from Che Guevara and a Coca-Cola mash-up to a crazy portrait of
Boats...
...on the Thu Bon River... Bono as Superman over the bar, wicked! We had been there for a while when I noticed it was now after 11pm, into the final hour of my 30's...yikes...haha... The DJ was playing some great tunes and seemed to be hooked up to the internet so waved him over, explained that my birthday was about to begin at midnight and if he could find me Bad Luck from Social Distortion I would be extremely grateful. Karen had also pulled a sneak-a-roo and at the stroke of midnight the manager of the bar suddenly produced a bottle of champagne, all to the wonderful sounds of Bad Luck, amazing! Haha, what a way to start, and we would certainly make the most of (or I would certainly milk) this event for all it was worth... Spent the rest of the evening talking music with the DJ, Phong, and he wrote up a list of bands we were into (he knew most of 'em as well which was cool). More on this list later...
Next day, the big day, got off to a slow start due to the early start to the celebrations the night before but that was cool...first stop was
SupeBono!
Fantastic painting behind the bar at Before & Now...not sure if the missing "R" is on purpose or not... (KC) a massage, we had planned to do many of these on the trip but this turned out to be the only one, excellent though. Next we rented some bicycles and took a ride down to Cua Dai Beach, absolutely beautiful, followed by a dip in the South China Sea, yes! Chilled out for a bit and then it was back to the hotel to relax with some vino on our balcony (the street vendor outside the hotel had this mysterious '93 Bordeaux bottle of wine, had to do it! Yes? lol). Not sure if it was the real thing or not but it wasn't vinegar and tasted fine...haha... Karen then disappeared, heading for a "massage", and returned an hour later with my birthday gift: a really cool vintage wartime propaganda poster, absolutely brilliant! We had seen a propaganda shop in Ho Chi Minh and then came across another one here, and the posters were really compelling, a most excellent gift...
We cleaned up and headed out on the town; we had decided to eat at a place called Cafe des Amis. The owner, Mr. Kim, was apparently a taste-tester for a South Vietnamese General during the war, and his
restaurant serves up a set menu every evening, with about a two week rotation in dishes. I opted for the seafood menu, and I believe Karen went with the vegetarian, and all was shared to get a bigger variety of foods...and what food, fantastic! Highlight for me was the curried baby-shark (I think that's what it was, it's been a few weeks now), but everything was both great and plentiful... Karen had pulled another sneak-a-roo and after dinner a birthday cake appeared, with Happy 40th Birthday Jeff on it, unbelievable! I guess you really can get anything you want in Vietnam; Karen simply approached Mr. Kim with her request, and apparently within twenty minutes he had procured a cake from somewhere, complete with customized lettering...too funny...
Had to go back to Before & Now to finish the evening, and as we entered the bar Phong looked up from his computer and asked "Are you ready to rock?”. Absolutely! He then proceeded to play at least one song from every band we had written on the list the previous evening! This went on for over an hour, and we heard the likes of The Clash, The Replacements (Bastards of Young!),
Social Distortion, Stereophonics, Joe Strummer, Ramones and Who, just to name a few... Phong had obviously spent a bunch of time gathering the music that day, and his efforts really meant a lot, it was really cool hearing all these tunes in a bar in the middle of Vietnam on my birthday...hope the rest of the people there that night enjoyed it! Haha...
Next day was even slower; managed to scrape ourselves out of bed at the crack of noon and peddle our way back to the beach for a day filled with dips in the Sea and siestas. After getting a wicked sun/wind burn we cycled back to the hotel and then headed back downtown for dinner, where we finally found the 4000 dong beer we had heard about! 4000 dong is about 30 cents Canadian; really miss those prices...finished up with a meal at the outdoor stalls across the road...
For our last day in Hoi An we jumped on a tour to see the famous Cham ruins at My Son...what to say, not a whole lot there... If you were a history or archaeological buff you might find this interesting, and although I thought it
was okay I certainly wouldn't rush back....
Hoi An, what a fantastic time: I was spoiled rotten on my birthday, the shops and restaurants are excellent, the beach is great...all in all a perfect place to chill out...and now our time was up, next day it was back to Da Nang to fly to Hanoi...
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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