170. Hoi An Night Out
This story's a continuation of my second day in Vietnam (Hoi An)
On my second day of Hoi An, I was at the beach from noon until around 3PMish. I was feeling hungry and wanted to shower off all the sand. I headed back to the hostel and took a break before I headed back out.
My dinner before the pub quiz, complete with a Huda beer. This beer is confined to Central Vietnam and rarely found outside. Quite enjoyed it
As evening fell, the boys invited me to join their trivia pub team. I walked back to the Love Island hostel, through the lantern-lit beach-side street. The pub was bustling with energy, and we settled in, ready to start the pub quiz. Two girls from Berlin joined our team. I was happy to have two female companions (and honestly just being around people who weren’t British). It seems like literally everyone was from the UK and I felt like I was in Southeast Asian Majorca or Ibiza.
As the evening went on, the crowd got more and more British (the MC was literally a Northern Irish woman), everyone got more and more buzzed and lively. The boys were trying to spit game and charm the girls at the table. It was very endearing to see actually. I couldn’t really keep up with any of the references they were putting down. I think I was the only non-European there.
The boys’ (and frankly me as well) competitive nature drove us to push harder with each round. During the first round, unfortunately the boys didn’t listen to me when I gave the answer to the question of “what grain is whiskey made from?” (It’s barley.) I was pissed (not drunk, but upset) that we didn't write down the correct answer. I sleep better at night knowing I could have gotten 10 out of 10 questions correct during the first round.
At one point there was a mini-game during the pub quiz where a member of the team with the least amount of clothes (it was one of the German girls) had to wear 7 different layers of clothing. There were at least a dozen nearly naked blokes in the beach club. Entertaining to say the least.
The night ended with a song quiz and our group got us covered. One of the boys did most of the heavy lifting during the music round. A bunch of people joined in the little dance circle that coalesced in front of the tiny makeshift stage.
At one point during the night, one of the lads had to ask one of the German girls if he could “pull her for a quick chat” at the beach. Her friend whispered in my ear,
“Is this really Love Island right now?”
When the pub quiz ended and everyone started socializing with each other. The German girl came back from her chat by the beach, muttering something in German to her friend. She seems irritated and I don't need to comprehend much to just tell her mood by her furrowed brow and annoyed eyeroll. After the exchange in German, they translated her frustration to me.
"He was telling me that he had a girlfriend in London. Why would you flirt with me if you had a girlfriend the entire time?"
I tried to be cheeky with my German reply, "Damn...Alle Männer sind Schweine."
The whole crowd filed into a shuttle bus. I saw all of those different people jamming themselves in the shuttle and I really couldn’t be bothered, so I ordered a 8- seater Grab for the whole team. When we reached Old Town, we hopped from pub to pub. I really tried to find a good dance club, but none of the bars had the vibe, until the very last one. It was around midnight when I decided to head back.
“Uncle I need to sleep. Can you drive fast?” Say no more. That man rode like the wind.
A photo of the girls I met at the pub crawl. The girls were certainly girling (unrecognizable but immaculate vibes surely)
We didn’t win the trivia contest, but it hardly mattered. The camaraderie, the shared laughs, and time together were the true rewards.
I was still awake and wanted to go back to the beach. I actually encountered two of the boys sitting on the beach chairs. What a funny coincidence. They gave me a bahn mi and I was included in their little chat break and I had a really delightful sleep.
I was off to Hanoi the next day around evening time. I booked a overnight train from Da Nang to Hanoi.
~ a mad lad,
<3 K