Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

SORRY I DON’T HAVE ANY PICS HERE B/C MY FLASH DRIVE FAILED AND I SENT ALL MY PICS HOME WITH STEVE (Steve, maybe if u have time u could post some pics for me) 

After finally deciding to leave Hoa’s place, I went to Hoi An to pick up a suit I had made fro Bob’s wedding from one of Hoa’s friends.  Hoa had taken me into town to get a few beers and get measured for some clothing a few days before.  The suit fit perfectly on the first try for only $35.  I decided to surprise Bob and Denise and show up at their fancy affair in a off white linen suit after backpacking around Asia for the past 4 months.  It was beautiful.  I sorta looked like Don Johnson in Miami Vice.  It was fitting (no pun intended) since Miami is my last known address.  I also had 2 pairs of travel zippered pants copied from my original Travel pants and I also had Sarah remake the bottoms to the originals that got stolen in Singapore.  The rest of Hoi An I could do without.  It’s an old historic city with some nice buildings, but it was hot! damn hot! with almost no breeze to brake it up.  The beach was also 3,900M farther out of town than at Hoa’s Place.  I think the only thing I really liked about Hoi An was the Mango Bar which had a salsa night and an awsome mango salsa and tortilla chip appetizer.

Leaving Hoi An I made the fatal mistake of buying an open bus ticket to Saigon.  I even paid an extra dollar to make sure that I got a good bus which promptly broke down 20Km out of town in a petrol station.  I knew it was bad when they stopped trying to fix the bus and told me that another bus was coming to get us.  30 minutes later, they started to try to fix the bus again.  We made the best of the situation by taknig over the station with an Ipod and speakers.  We bought all the beers they had and made a party out of it.  We finally got back on the bus from hell and rode it another 10 hours down to Nha Trang.  Aside from the beautiful sunrise on the way down the trip was just a preview of all bus rides in Vietnam down to Saigon.

I’ve found a little slice of heaven!  I only wish I had arrived when Hoa first opened his doors in 1994. Vietnam’s backpacker trail is so set and easy to travel with buses picking u up from you hotel and dropping you off at their friend’s hotels. I decided in order to see a bit more of the real Vietnam, I had to get off the cities in Vietnam that start of H or D and decided to go to the infamous China Beach near Marble Mountain . All I had was a telephone number, a bad address and a map that had the wrong location marked to find Hoa’s Place.  So as I boarded the bus, I had no idea where to get off or how to find his place except the assurances that everyone knows Hoa’s Place, which everyone did.  I walked about 20 feet from the corner where the bus dropped me off before a girl on a motorbike asked me if I needed a lift.  “No worries, no charge, Hoa’s my uncle”.  Apparently everyone is somehow ‘related’ to Hoa, but not really.  Sort of like in the same sense that everyone in China is my Uncle or Auntie.  China Beach as many of you may know from the cheezy TV show is where the GIs went for RnR during the “American War” (as they call it in Vietnam). And I’m sorry to say, but Robert Duval in Appocolypse Now was wrong. Charlie DOES surf! I arrived shortly after a major Typhoon had just passed thru the area and the waves were WICKED as were the rip currents. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The Rip tide was so strong that just standing knee deep in the water almost caused me to get sucked out to sea. I had to do all I could just to keep my footing. It took 2 days before I could go into the water to do some body surfing. The almost empty white sand beach, surf and beautiful sunsets from atop Marble Mountain   were not the things that made this place so great. The best part of this area was Hoa’s Place.   He and his family run a 2 room guest house with a restaurant where Mom cooks a family style meal every night at 7pm and they feed you til u stop eating. As it’s quite easy for a 2 room guesthouse to be full, Hoa passes the overflow on to his community and the guesthouses nearby. I think if it were not for Bob’s wedding in Bali, I may still be there today.  Hoa’s Place reminded me of my old place, Villa Torino, in Ft. Lauderdale in that it was less than 100M to the ocean and that I felt so much at home there.  Travel began to slow right down even though I knew I only had 3 weeks in Vietnam.  So I’d like to say Thank you for a wonderful time and your great hospitality to the Hoa Family.  I hope to see you again next time I’m in town.

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