My Little Southeast Asia Adventure - Ninth Stop: Hoi An Old Town, Vietnam
June 30 to July 3

Hoi An Old Town is the most beautiful, charming, and laid-back town I've ever been to. The old quarter of Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it's so small that you can walk the entire town in less than an hour.

Funny story:

I took an overnight train (about 11 hours) from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang, where I would get a 45 mins bus to Hoi An. When I got off the train, I didn't know where the bus station was because it wasn't included in my Lonely Planet map of Danang, and Lonely Planet's suggestion was to take a taxi. I was alone and didn't have anyone to share cab fare with. The cab drivers were asking me 300,000VND which was about Php800! I wasn't in a hurry so I decided to walk around Danang while finding the bus station. I had to resort to drawing an image of a bus to show people because no one spoke English. HAHA!

After walking for what may have been 20 minutes or so, a woman who spoke some English pointed me to where the bus station was. When I was about to cross an intersection I saw an old bus with open windows (so no aircon) that had a huge DANANG-HOI AN sign on top of the windshield. I didn't think it would stop where I was because it looked like it was turning left on the intersection. On the bus's rear exit door, the driver's assistant (you know, those who collects the money) was shouting at me "Hoi An? Hoi An?" and I kept nodding my head, happy to know that I didn't have to walk all the way to the station. The assistant shouted to the driver to pull over (ok, I'm assuming that's what he said) and got off the bus to help me with my huge backpack. The driver may not have heard him because it kept running. When he looked back, the bus was already a good distance away and still running! He ran as fast as he COULD while shouting to what I assume was, "STOOOOOOP! YOU STUPID FUCK! STOOOOOOP! STOOOOOOP! YOU SON OF A BITCH STOOOOOP!" with all his might. As he was running after his bus, I was running after him. I didn't want to miss that damn bus either.

Luckily, one of the passengers must've heard him, looked back and saw the driver's panic stricken assistant run like the wind and told the driver to pull over. When we got to the bus, the assistant was still swearing and went directly to the driver to reprimand him. HAHAHAHA!

Hoi An:

When I got to Hoi An, I got a motorbike to take me to town. I already had a guesthouse in mind (from my travel bible Lonely Planet's Southeast Asia on a shoestring) but my driver took me to a different guesthouse. I learned this is what they do, because they get a commission from the hotels or guesthouses. I told him he took me to the wrong place and he should take me to the guesthouse I had originally told him. Since we have already agreed on a price, I didn't pay him to take me there. While riding the motorbike, I was already falling in love with the place. Streets were so small that cars aren't allowed to get in so you either walk by foot or bike your way around. Beautiful little shops filled with colorful paintings, lanterns, handwoven products, custom-made clothes, etc etc etc. When I got to the guesthouse I wanted, I was told it was full. Luckily, there were a lot of guesthouses to choose from in this place. I found a cheap but nice hotel (with a bathtub for $10!) and settled.

The only couchsurfing.com member I found here is Arfan, an Indonesian who is the general manager of a beautiful 4-star boutique resort in Hoi An. Though he couldn't host me he was very nice to let me use the pool (best pool I've ever swam in my life by the way) and the resort's gym for free.

The next day, I rented a bike for one dollar to go to the beach which was about 5kms away. The receptionsist told me it was only 2kms away. It was my first time to ride a bike again after more than 15 years so you can imagine me wiggling and trying to get my balance. Soon, I was driving faster. After driving for what I think was definitely more than 2kms already, I still didn't find any beach! I was getting frustrated and hot that I turned my bicycle around and decided to just go back. Then I remembered a few lines from one of my favorite poems "Don't Quit",

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

I turned my bike around again and told myself to just drive and drive and no matter how long it will take me. I will get to that goddamn beach.

Sure enough, I wasn't very far at that point anymore. About 5 minutes later, I saw the beach right at the end of the road. I loved that feeling. That rewarding feeling after I went for it, worked hard for it, and deciding not to give up even when I was at a point of giving up.

Ahhh... Hoi An is one of those places that will captivate you and you find yourself always sighing at it's charming beauty. Very peaceful, very friendly, very laid-back, very romantic, very calm. People were already asleep by 10.30PM, there are no loud bars where you can dance all night. (I guess that's the only draw back for me because I love to dance.)

But it's such a delightful little place. Sigh...