Hoi An: Day Three

Jaimie’s Story:
AJ and I are getting old already, another night going to bed by 9 and waking up to the first rooster crow. We wandered around looking for breakfast but had a hard time finding any “breakfast foods”, or at least what we consider breakfast fare. Most coffee shops in Hoi An don’t sell food, even breads or pastries. We ultimately ended up getting a sandwich at 8AM at Madam Khanh’s, the “Bahn Mi Queen”. We found the small hole in the wall shop based on Anthony Bourdain’s endorsement. He wasn’t wrong and she is the queen. Cherry on top: each sandwich cost 20k dong or about 90 cents. Yum!

Later that day we headed to Herbs and Spices for a private cooking class. It lasted about 3 hours and we learned to prepare three popular Vietnamese dishes from scratch. One the menu: crispy spring rolls and dipping sauce, bbq pork belly, Bún ch? (pork and chicken patties with rice noodle) and sea bass with fresh turmeric grilled in a banana leaf. It was to die for and we had so much fun cooking together. AJ is definitely the most handsome chef.

AJ’s Story:
During our cooking class we were chit-chatting with our instructor, he made a point to mention that the Vietnamese soccer team was playing in a big game later in the day. He seemed very excited. I had not thought of Vietnam as a big soccer country previously. The game being played was the finals of the Southeast Asia Games. A sort of small olympics style event for the 11 or so southeast Asian countries. Doing a little research I found out that they are played every 2 years with the host country rotating each time.

There are a few main sports played every year at the Southeast Asian Games, but beyond that the host country gets to pick the sports. So in the past niche sports have been chosen to boost home teams medal count. Soccer had been brought to Vietnam by the French over a century ago, so it is very popular, but my wiki-research told me that

Vietnam had never won this tournament for soccer as a unified country.

We set out to find a good sports bar to hole up in. A bar titled “Sports Bar” we picked proved to be kind of a sterile empty American themed bar. We moved on to “Woop Woop,” which did not have a TV to watch the game, but it was full of friendly Australians, Brits and other English speakers ready to give advice. They warned us that it gets chaotic even if they lose, but the best way to watch is with locals.

On their recommendation we made our way to a square filled with people. Watching the games outside on various TVs with boom boxes amplifying the sound. We sat down at cafe and the owner of a local store brought us Larue’s (Think Asian Bud Light). It was cool and humid after a warm day. The beers went down as easily as Vietnam’s goals would go into the Indonesian net.

Vietnam won easily, 3-0. Not a beautiful game, but each goal brought celebration. The streets were already full of people on motorbikes waiving the red flags with centered yellow star, before the game started. Each goal added to the beeping horns, revving engines and firework cracks. Our dinner plans were foiled as all of the restaurant employees danced in the streets. We stood in a main square and watch the celebrations, posters of the Vietnamese coach, Ho Chi Minh and red flags filled the streets. Singing and loud music blared. The only words of the song that I could make out were “Vietnam.”