At 9am every morning, Damien rides through Hoi An town on his red motorbike with a wad of pamphlets. He calls on every hotel to deliver pamphlets to advertise for King Kong and Sleepy Gecko bars.
Though he has not worked for the two above bars for very long, Damien’s notebook is full of telephone numbers and addresses of hundreds of hotels and restaurants in Hoi An, which he visits every day to advertise these bars.
His day starts at 9am and ends at 11pm. From 9am to 5pm, Damien markets for Sleepy Gecko and from 7pm to 11pm, he is in charge of sound, light, and also a waiter and a cashier at the King Kong bar, owned by an Indian man.
Damien, 26, was born and grew up in Queensland state, Australia. He is an automobile engineer. “I worked for four years with broken-down engines. Sometimes I wondered why I had to spend my life with these failed machines?” he said. Damien quit his job and came to Vietnam as a backpacker.
“I planned to visit Vietnam for around one month. But when I came to Hoi An, I wanted to stay here immediately. I feel my life here is more meaningful,” he said. The current jobs don’t bring about high income for Damien but he loves them.
Hoi An enchants Damien becaof the good, cheap food, fresh air, and friendly people. In his free time, Damien rides on his motorbike to restaurants along the Hoai River to taste local cuisines like hen xao, banh trang and che bap.
Damien is now an “expert” of Hoi An. He knows this ancient town better than some locals. “The first day in Hoi An, I dropped in at a common restaurant near Hoi An market to buy a plate of rice. The saleswoman charged me double. I quietly paid for the meal and left. The next day I returned to that restaurant, the saleswoman charged me half of the previous day. I was very surprised. She looked at me, smiled in a friendly way and told her nephew to translate to me: you are an acquaintance! That’s it! I become her acquaintance. That’s why I chose Hoi An to live and work.”
For a Dutch couple, Marc, 36 and Fem, 27, Hoi An is the starting place for their family life. They met each other when they travelled Vietnam in late 2003 and the peaceful life in Hoi An brought them together.
Marc works as a tour guide for a local tourism company, Son My Son Co, Ltd., which organises tours to the My Son relics. Loving the quiet and peaceful atmosphere in the ancient town, Fem doesn’t want to return to Holland, but stay in Hoi An with Marc to build their new life. Their wedding party was a simple meal in a small hoon Nhi Trung street.
Marc and Fem have decorated their small holike a tour operating office, with a Hoi An map marked with restaurants, shops and their products, prices, information that the couple spent several months collecting. The salary of Marc and Fem is sufficient to pay for their hoand their daily living.
“It is very easy to live in Hoi An. The locals are lovely. We always feel comfortable loitering on the way and at cafes with local young people,” Marc said.
Their eldest son has a Vietnamese name, Son. “We named him Son to remember My Son,” Marc said.
This small family is waiting for a new member. “If my child is a girl, we will name her Hoi An, perhaps Nguyen Thi Hoi An,” Fem said.
For Scott McMillan, 30, from Britain, Hoi An is a favourable environment for his work. As a veterinary doctor, Scott came to Vietnam as a tourist. While staying in Hoi An for one week, Scott fell in love with this ancient town and sought to stay in Hoi An.
Hiring a small hoin the town’s suburbs, Scott knocked on the door of many hotels and restaurants to seek a job. During the day he taught English at a foreign language centre in Da Nang city, 30km from Hoi An, and at night, he worked for a hotel in Hoi An.
After nearly four months working in that way, Scott became the manager of Pho Hoi 2 Hotel. At night, he teaches English to the hotel’s staffs and they teach him Vietnamese. Scott said he loves his current life very much.
“I cannot tell you my plan but in the very near future, I will do something for Hoi An, certainly for tourism. My parents greatly support me.”
Scott revealed that he is in love with a Hoi An girl. “We will get married and live here. I chose Hoi An as my home and my children may live here as well.”
Scott is trying to “speak Vietnamese well and further fit in the local community. I don’t want to be called ong Tay (foreigner). Why don’t they call me ong ta (Vietnamese)?” he said and smiled.
HANOI - HALONG - HUE - DANANG - HOIAN - MY SON - HOCHIMINH
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