Living the Life in Hoi An – Part 1: A Beach, A Bar, and A Cockroach

Jemma, Leanne and I quickly settled in to Hoi An. We all loved the town – it was even quieter than Hue, and there weren’t really any tourist attractions (or at least none that we went to), which was a nice break for us. It’s a sleepy beach town, so that’s where we headed for our first full day. We rented bikes for the day for 20,000 dong, or $1, and rode about 20 minutes to the beach.

Trying to not get hit by motorbikes

I have simple, but specific, tastes when it comes to the beach. I am not a fan of places with pumping music, or tons of drunk tourists, or aggressive touts trying to braid my hair or sell me light up toys. Hoi An fit my definition of a beach perfectly – it was quiet, not too touristy, with plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas. The ocean was calm and clear, and there were some water sports set up down the beach if we were feeling adventurous.

A peaceful Hoi An beach

We spent the day side by side in our chairs, telling stories about our trips so far, gossiping about our lives at home, reading our Kindles and occasionally braving the burning hot sand to swim in the sea. The weather was perfect and I could tell that all three of us were glad to have people to share it with – and not just hostel friends, but real friends, which we already knew we were.

After we couldn’t stand the sun anymore, we biked back towards the hotel and ate a very late lunch at a restaurant on the banks of a river. It couldn’t have been more picturesque – us sitting on couches on a porch over the water, watching farmers and their water buffaloes plowing fields as men paddled small canoes laden with goods up and down the river.

Relaxing after lunch

We had decided that this would be our first big night out together, so we showered and got as dressed up as backpackers can be – which basically means I put on eye liner and earrings for the first time in a few weeks. The three of us headed back to the old town and ate another delicious and cheap meal on the waterfront. While finishing our food, I spotted my Halong Bay friends – Rachel, Joe and Stephen. I knew they were in Hoi An and we had planned to meet up at some point, but luckily they had found me first. They had gone out the night before, and told us Hoi An was definitely not a place to party, but there was one decent bar and we decided to meet up there later.

Hoi An proved its reputation as a sleepy place when all the street lights and the lanterns over the bridges went out – at 9 pm. At this point Jemma , Leanne and I were sitting at a bar on the street, having a few beers, and once the lights were out we were basically told to go. As we worked on finishing our drinks, a man on a motorbike kept riding past with different foreigners on the back seat. It turns out he was in charge of getting people to the bar where I had decided to meet Rachel, Stephen and Joe, and offered to fit all three of us on his tiny motorbike and take us over there.

Now I’ve seen six people on a bike before, but four of them were children. Three adults is also common, but in my mind pushing it, so it was clearly not a good idea for there to be four of us on the bike, especially since the driver was a complete stranger. Jemma still had the massive bruise on her leg from a previous motorbike incident, so we wisely chose to walk and started heading off, following the direction of the man with yet another tourist on his bike.

We walked, and walked and walked. The streets were dimly lit, and there were occasionally people out and about. Every time we were about to turn back, our motorbike friend passed us and encouraged us along. We finally arrived and the one bar in town opened late turned out to be about the size of my bedroom at home, with a few tables outside. We ordered drinks and sat at one of these tables, and immediately saw the giant rats running about in the alleys on either side of us. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but it was to get worse.

The girls

Rachel, Stephen and Joe showed up (on the back of motorbikes) and joined us for drinks. Despite the rats, we were enjoying ourselves until it started to drizzle and we moved inside. Most of the bar was taken up by a pool table, so we squeezed into the one booth and continued to drink our beers and the free rum and cokes we got with every purchase. The inside of the bar was covered in graffiti from previous patrons, so we took the provided markers and added our own touches to the tables and the walls.

Jemma and I representing the Garden State

I was talking to Stephen when I saw a commotion at the end of the table. I got the full story from Leanne later – she had been chatting with Joe, who was leaning against the wall. She noticed he was squirming around a bit, but assumed it was from the mosquito bites that were tormenting everyone.  Suddenly, a giant cockroach climbed out of the armpit of his shirt and onto his chest! He had felt what he thought was an itch and clearly didn’t realize that a cockroach had climbed down the wall and under his shirt, but to his credit he didn’t freak out like I would have if something that huge crawled out of my clothing.

Joe, me, Rachel and Stephen pre-cockroach

Between the cockroaches inside and the rats outside, we decided to head back to the hotel. Our “big night out” had lasted until about midnight, which for Hoi An basically qualified as a rave and for anywhere else barely registered as a party. We would have to wait a few more days, and journey to a different city, for a real night out.