Mornings made easy are best resolved by early nights, but seriously, where is the fun in accomplishing that feat each and every day? It’s like getting an award for participation of recognition for attendance, ‘thanks dude, you showed up!’. In any case, morning at the Nhi Nhi on this day was a little easier than the previous ones, which only translated into the fact that I was ‘soft’ the night before.
I’d resolved the day before that I’d get out to the beach today and just chill for the most part, drink, write in my journal and do not much generally. The only shame was that when I hit the streets on this morning Hoi An had decided to blanket itself with grey skies aplenty and leant towards weather more accustomed with late Autumn than anything akin to Summer. Still, sometimes half the battle is willing yourself to be optimistic, so I jumped onto my bike and headed east to the beach via a short stop at Tony’s to work on an evening ‘fitting session’.
Cua Dai beach is pleasantly long and once you remove yourself from the centre of activity, which is basically at the end of Cura Dai Rd, well, then you pretty much have the beach to yourself. I settled in at restaurant/hut #9 on the beach, positioning myself on a sunning chair looking out over the South China Sea, a few Blue Hawaiian cocktails in transit and a relaxed vibe that had already arrived well before making my entrance at #9. Whilst I had the intention of living life as a Middle Eastern prince for the afternoon an evil little tempest blew up off the sea relatively early in the piece and was accompanied by rain not too long after, blowing away my chances of being fed spring rolls and grapes by spritely Vietnamese teens. A shame really, it would have been such a great place to do not much at all for the day.
Blue Hawaiians on Cua Dai Beach
Cua Dai Beach - Looks like I 'owned' this area!
I decided to head back into town after my dreams were shattered by the temperamental Hoi An weather. Strangely, running along the same lines of thought as the evening before I wondered what my fate would be if the chain slipped kms from anywhere and I was required to call upon myself to actually fix something. Almost Zen like I had channelled into the moment because no more than a few mins after that thought had entered my conscious mind I was parked by the side of the road, bike flipped over and me doing my best to remember what the Vietnamese Mr Miyagi had shown me as the correct procedure for resurrecting a bike in the Ancient Town just the evening before. By some strange feat of skill, dexterity and a little memory recovery I somehow managed to slip the chain back onto the gears with my hands and hey, back in business, all greased up but still on the road.
Seeing as though my slight mishap occurred only a short distance from the My Son café l decided to stop in and get myself cleaned up a little. No sooner had I parked my bike across the road than I head Lilli call out and ask me to come over. As you may recall, Lilli and Judith were two of three girls that we had crashed the Karaoke Christmas party with a couple of nights earlier, so who was I not to be gentlemanly and not stop in to share a drink or several!?....and that’s exactly what I did, chatted for a while, enjoyed the company and surrounds, drinking my way into another afternoon.
Lilli and Judith suggested that we cruise into town and grab an ‘all you can eat style of baguette’ that they had located at a road side hawker a day or so earlier. Once again, like I was going to turn down an offer to accompany these two lovely ladies on their quest? I think not! So on their recommendation I ordered up a pork baguette with the works and I’ve got to say that it went down a treat. A fabulous mix of meat, salad and chilli! We then continued on down through the markets, walking alongside the Thu Bon river until we got to the Mango Rooms restaurant & café. We sat just inside the door in a kind of raised platform area that had comfortable cushions spread out on its floor and a wooden ‘low rider’ style table that of course had to be accompanied by the requisite slovenly lounging. It was fantastic to sit back and look out of the huge roadside windows out onto the Thu Bon, with drink in hand and just chat the afternoon away.
Some while later we parted company but did that ‘kind of’ agree to ‘meet up thing’ at the Before and Now bar sometime close to 10:30. You know what I mean, it’s like ‘well, if you don’t have something better to do’ and you give them the same answer, knowing full well that the best offer that you have is the one that’s currently on the table. With that in mind I rode on back to the hotel and got my gear together for the next day’s departure. I’d be flying back to Hanoi in the early evening the following day and thought it would be easier to get all my important items in order now so as to buy me a little additional time in Hoi An the next morning.
Later on in the evening I headed out to the River Lounge to have myself a little bit of dinner and relax on their ridiculously large day beds that doubled as patron seating. Aside from this place being a great place to hang out, listen to a bit of music and relax, it was a also a ridiculously cheap place to have a great dinner. I sat out on the balcony whilst having dinner which was a set menu, 3 small starters as an entrée (spring rolls, pumpkin soup and some other style of vegetarian rolls), chicken and rice as a main, crème bruleè as a finalè…the final result to the back pocket was 120,000VND or the equivalent of $10 AUD which also included two Manhattan’s!!!
Hoi An - shot from River Lounge
River Lounge - Hoi An
Entree's - River Lounge - Hoi An
Interior - River Lounge - Hoi An
Took the bike for a spin around town for a while after dinner but turned up at the old haunt, the Before and Now bar for a few. As good fortune and a little good planning would have it, Lilli, Judith and Jolene were already there and were in the need of some male company, again, like I was going to argue with that rationale.
Random street shot - Hoi An
As becomes the common game at this bar, you drink, chat, drink some more and end up destroying a few hours quite easily in the process. I’m sure at some point in the night the girls ordered a round of beers and I managed to hijack myself a daiquiri in the round – now picture that if you will, three beers and a daiquiri for the fruit that was trying to be all manly!? Lol, I certainly got paid out for that choice. In any case we ended up staying until closing which was about 2:30am, a couple of boys from Iowa and Jersey joining us for the action sometime towards the end of the night.
Before and Now Bar - Le Loi St - Hoi An
About the right odds - Befoe and Now Bar - Hoi An
Another great evening in Hoi An and yet another late night return to the Nhi Nhi – I’m sure the staff were happy to see my pretty face waking them up at 3am again!
