Hoi An - Vietnam

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This is a long one, but worth it!

So after checking into our hotel about midday and checking out the pool me, Ste, Rob and Ross all headed for a walk into town, our hotel is only a 10 minute walk from the main area with a market and loads of restaurants and bars by the river. We had some lunch in a cute little cafe by the river,so much cheaper than the food in Hanoi. Got an amazing chicken dish covered in loads of herbs and spices, with free rice for just over 1 pound. Loads of the restaurants by the river all sell the cheap fresh beer for about 15p, so we were liking Hoi An so far. One thing Hoi An is mainly known for (thanks to top gear) is all the tailor clothe shops. It does work out pretty cheap, get suits made to fit you probably for about $30 but still we weren't interested as nothing else could possibly fit in our tiny 35 litre bags! And the cost of posting it back home would be huge. They have a huge market though where we bought a few bits, ste got a vest top for 1 pound, i got a summer dress thing for about 2.50 and a funky colour pashmina scarf/sarong for just under 2 pound, so a few bargains. Walking around the town was lovely, its sooo much nicer than anywhere else, less crazy, still quiet a few bikes, but enough to handle, loads of shops and loads of people around asking you where you from?> you want to buy something? come take a look, looking for free? happy hour today? lovely jubbly, gooday mate....its sooo funny!

Anyway we headed back to the hotel and chilled by the pool for a bit, unfortunately the water was freeeeeezing, the boys jumped in, but I just soaked up some sun! Ste and I look so pastey compared to everyone else, think they are all coming to the end of their south east asia trip and we are just starting! Ste had some fun practising his underwater shots with the camera, they look really good! We headed back down to the river for some dinner, another cheap meal, 1.30 for a 3 course set meal!! Bargain! The waitress was lovely, really friendly and chatting to us loads, we saw her everyday after that when we walked passed her restaurant and she always talked to us loads even though we weren't going in to eat. we tried to persuade her to come out for a drink but she said she works 6 days a week from 9am-10pm and on her day off she sleeps or goes shopping for a little while...crazy!

Now here's where it all changed! Whilst eating our dinner some vietnamese guy came up and gave us a flyer for a bar he worked out called Why Not bar, it was offering free rum and coke all night (dont know how they make any money) so we said yeah sure we will come down after our dinner, he was so happy. After we paid up, we left the restaurant and the guy plus 3 of his friends were all waiting there on their bikes...they had waited for us to finish eating and were offering to bike us down to the bar for free. It was only a 10 minutewalk, but we weren't sure where it was and since the roads are pretty quiet round here we decided it wouldnt be too risky to jump on the back of their bikes. Ah it was great, first time Ste and I had ever sat on a bike, they only go about 20 miles an hour, and none of the drivers drink (which was a relief) and we were at thier bar within 2 minutes. Got lots of free rum and cokes, and met some of the other staff. We noticed a sign in their bar asking fr 2 westerners for some promotional work, all a bit tipsy we were like yeah great lets do it, lets stay here for months and work, then we were like, seriously though, we could just ask the owner if we could do it for a couple of days inexchange for some free drinks or soemthing. Well we spoke to the big boss man, called King Kong and agreed to a little deal of free drinks (whatever we wanted and however much), free dinner and he gave us 2 free scooters for as long as we wanted. All we had to do was go around in the evening for a few hours 8-11 and talk to people promoting their bars and handing out flyers, amazing! Because they are vietnamese when they speak to most westerners they get ignored as people presume they are trying to sell something, their english isnt that great either so they find it really difficult to persuade people to come to their bar, they were so happy we were able to help them. Just had to start tomorrow!

So we carried on our night, Rob and Ross went off on the bikes with them several times to try and keep people coming into the bar and picking them up around town, but Ste and I stayed in the bar enjoyingourselves and meeting loads of people. They had continued to give us free drinks for the evening 😊 We had moved on to their 2nd bar across the river which stays open later and they have a laptop on the side so you can chose your own music, was sooo nice to be able to play some songs we havent heard in aagggees!! We had a great night which was made even more random by the fact we then bumped into Jack in the bar...Jack from our 11 day trip around Mongolia!!! So random, last time we knew he went to Korea! Was good to see him, had a nice catch up and eventually ended the night around 4am!

Woke up the next day with Ross coming to our room saying what have we done, we've got 2 scooters being dropped off at midday with a load of flyers and have got ourselves a job! So random! At this point we were starting to be a bit sceptical, firstly thinking well what if we dont get many people to come to the bar and we go back at 11pm and the bar is empty, are they gonna be really mad, will they make us stay our all night....and secondly these scooters they gave us, there are loads of scams in vietnam where you hire scooters and when you take them back they try and charge you for a load of damage you didnt even do! So we decided Ste and I should not go on the scooters and leave that to Rob and Ross who had ridden them before and we would go on the back. We only really used them to bike down to the beach which was 5km away and on one long straight road and considering the bikes dont really go over 20 mph it really wasn't that bad. We spent the day down the beach which was gorgeous!! Did a little bit of flyering down there then just relaxed on the beach while the boys jumped in the sea, which wasn't too cold.

We headed back into town for some dinner before we started "work" and bumped into a couple from our halong bay trip last week. We decided to go back to the same restaurant as last night with our friendly waitress, such goood food! And so cheap! Then off we went around town giving our leaflets! It was ok to be honest, most people sto and listen to you and then once you tell them about the free drinks they seem pretty interested and some get on bikes with the family and get taken their but a lot of people say they will walk there which means they probably wont go! The rest of the staff from the bar were also around town which was really annoying as they give out flyers to everyone but dont really explain it so by the time we give them a flyer they say they already have one and aren't interested! So annoying. And the main guy for the promotion stuff gets a bit bossy on the streets, pointing to us to go up to every white person he sees, even if they are 60! So got a bit annoying in the evening, but the bar had given us a free "bucket cocktail" to drink whilst we were going around which was yummy and kept our energy and spirits up! Around 10.30pm the streets started to get quieter so we headed back to bar, we were so nervous that the bar was going to be dead but it was soooo busy!!! Ah it was suh a relief!! King Kong the boss man (that is really what everyone calls him) was sooo pleased with us, feeding us whatever drinks we asked for, finding seats for us even if that meant moving other people aahhh he just seemed sooo happy. And it was soo good for us as we saw everyone we had spoken to during the day and the evening so we could stop now and talk to them properly. We stayed in the first bar till around midnight then they biked everyone over the river to their other livelier bar where we ended up staying till about 4am...again! Was a great evening, and later on about 3am we were feeling a bit hungry and I asked Kong if there was anywhere nearby that was open we could grab some food but he said it was too late, so I was like ah no problem. Next thing we know about 20 mins later one of the family or friends walked in with a huge bucket of squid!!! Started cooking it up for us and even cooked us a bowl of rice each to go with it. Was so surreal sitting down about 4am eating squid that had just been cooked for us and sharing it with all these vietnamese guys. Our sceptical side from this morning had gone away now, now we realised these guys were genuinely nice people who just needed a bit of help promoting their bar and were so thankful to us they were treating us soo nicely!

The next day (saturday) was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, beach, flyering, busy bar again, great night late again! Although we stopped by the bar before we headed off in the evening to see Kong and he sent us out for dinner to a little local outdoor place that served the most amazing fried rice and chicken and he insisted on paying for it! Was really good. We had started to get a bit worried that none of us had discussed that we only wanted to do this work for a couple of days. So I spoke to Kong later that night to explain that we only wanted to work the 2 nights we had done as we were all very tired and couldnt handle working another night. He seemed ok, a bit sad but just asked that if we could help him one last time and just work for 30 minutes to get some people in the bar and then if we are tired we can go home early to sleep or if we wanted to we could stay and get free drink again! So we agreed one more day. Saturday night was another really succesfull night, another late one with lots more free drinks and free rides home.

We had another day relaxing on the beach Sunday, the boys had bought a huge rubber ring and were going in the sea floating on the waves. Then got another free dinner of chicken and fried rice and began work for one last time, this time we just went around for 1 hour, popped into the bar on the way home just for a couple of free drinks, met loads more people and it was another successful night at the bar. Kong seemed really pleased with us 😊

Monday we had booked a trip to some old ruins called My Son, they used to be a load of temples in the middle of the jungle but a lot of it got destroyed by bombs in the war. We had a crazy little tour guide who was very enthusiastic telling us loads of stories and info altho was a bit scary when he asked to make sure we did not stray from the path at all as loads of the land still has some unexploded mines!!! WHAT!! Crazy, but turns out this is quiet common all over vietnam and cambodia. After the ruins we got a boat ride back with some lunch on it which was nice. That evening we went for dinner at a place called Ba Le Well which is about 2 pound for unlimited food 😊 Basically its all the same stuff, you get a load of salad, veg, meat, spring rolls, and rice paper to make up your own wraps, was amazing, the staff kept coming round too making our wraps up showing us how to do it and one of the waiters was a huge football fan and kept chatting to the lads about it. We headed back to the hotel for an early night, finally went to bed before midnight in what seemed like ages!

Tuesday we had our bus booked to Nha Trang (12 hours away) our next destination for 6pm, Rob and Ross were going too so we spent the day just wondering back in town and round the market. About 3pm we decided to stop by the bar one last time and say goodbye to Kong, well 2 hours went by after he pretty much forced us to have some free drinks again! Was a mad little afternoon, some woman was walking by selling some sunglasses that rob wanted as he had lost his in the sea. The guys in the bar were telling us what was a good price etc, well they were a bit more than he wanted to pay then Kong started speaking to her in Vietnamese and then handed over some money, we were all shouting telling him no no dont worry we'll get them, but he wouldnt have none of it and insisted on buying ross some new sunglasses! So nice! Well we finally had to leave to go get our bus so we said our goodbyes and as we were hugging Kong goodbye he started getting tears in his eyes!! I couldnt believe it, this guy, the big boss, with his 10 or so men working for him was crying!! We kept turning back to wave and he just kept shoving us away pointing to his tears saying he was too upset! It was sooooo sad. There we were just sulking back to our hotel to leave, we felt awful. Byebye Hoi An!

Lots of love,

Layla & Ste xxxx

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Photos

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First night in Why Not bar

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Reunited with Jack from Mongolia!!!

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Baby Kong

Comments

[Lara Ellis]

Sounds fab,. cant believe you all left king kong you meanies you could have stayed out there for a while and helped him more lol! xx mum said you could pop in on the way back. Mum keeps thinking of mash the tv program xx but mum thinks your drinking too much xx