JAG Journeys: July 2014

Vietnam Trip ~ Day 6 & 7

July 18-19, 2012

Our train from Nha Trang left around midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We had the not-so-pleasant surprise of finding people sleeping on the floor beneath our seats. Trying to keep our feet off them throughout the night, combined with the hard, wooden benches of the "hard seat" section of the train, and our train car's very hardworking air conditioning made it very difficult to get consistent sleep. After what seemed like a very long night, the sky started to get light around 5 or 5:30 and we watched the sunrise from the train. After that, there was no more sleeping because the car came alive around 6 a.m. Everyone was awake and talking, and the people selling food started walking up and down the aisles shouting about the food they were selling. So for the rest of the train ride we just looked out the window, talked, read our guidebook, and did a bit of light snoozing when we could. We were surprised by our train's speed (or lack thereof), and marveled that the trip took about 11 hours to go 525 km (326 miles), which is an average of approximately 50 km/hour. What a difference from the KTX bullet trains in South Korea!

Our train as it stopped in Nha Trang

It was a mad dash to get on board...

Sunrise from the train

Quite the way to travel (note the legs under the wooden bench...)

Our train was late getting to the Danang station by about an hour, so we finally got to our stop after 11 a.m. We eagerly left our wooden benches and then tried to find a way to get to Hoi An -- our actual destination, a historical city about an hour's drive from Danang. We talked to a few other foreign travelers about what they were doing and ended up being able to get the last two seats in a large van that one family of 7 or 8 (grandparents and aunts and cousins, it seemed) was getting. It was nice that we could just fill up their extra seats and not have to pay too much for our own taxi. The road hugged the coast and we gazed out the van windows at the brilliant blue water and sandy beaches. When we arrived in Hoi An, the driver let us all out in front of the hotel where the other passengers were booked, so we said a quick goodbye to them and walked down the street to the hotel we wanted to stay in. We easily got a room -- a small, sweltering one in the attic, which we got to by climbing three flights of stairs. After opening the window to let in some fresh air, we relaxed a little bit before changing our clothes and freshening ourselves up, and then set out on the picturesque streets to explore this ancient town.

Hoi An became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1999. "It is a well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century, and it is the only town in Vietnam that has survived intact in this way." On the city streets, we asked a passerby how to get to the old town center and wandered in that direction down a few narrow streets until we came out of a small alley onto a colourful palette of shops, restaurants, and ancient buildings. We spent the afternoon popping into interesting shops, snapping pictures as we sauntered through the center of town, and lingering with our fruit smoothies when the sun drove us onto covered restaurant patios to cool down.

The only way to cool down was to come inside...

...and quickly down fruit smoothies. :)

A pretty painting we almost bought, but in the end didn't because it was too big to fit into our backpacking backpack.

Inside the covered Japanese Bridge in the center of town

Incense burning inside a room of the Japanese Bridge

Farmer working in his field in the middle of town

In the late afternoon, after getting our fill of the busy, bustling old town center, we used our guidebook map to find a point of interest a little way out of downtown. We're not totally sure what it actually was, but it was garden-like and seemed to have Buddhist qualities. We enjoyed the quiet and calm inside the stone enclosure. After taking some pictures of the serene setting, we headed back to our hotel, very happy to relax our feet upon our arrival.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant, took a quick but refreshing dip in the hotel's pool in the middle of the lobby/courtyard, then changed and packed our bags. We were able to get a taxi back into Danang, then had to change to another taxi to get all the way out to the bus station, on the edge of town. At the bus station, we looked for the mini bus that we had been told would take us to our next destination, but we didn't see it. Finally, after asking quite a few people and bus drivers, we found a bus that was apparently heading in that direction, and although we weren't quite sure if we should take it, we finally decided we didn't really have any other choice, and got on board. The mini bus was quite full, but we were happy to be traveling faster than we had been going on the train. The drive took us about 5 hours and we went through some amazing scenery. Sadly, the bus windows were very dirty, and although I tried to take pictures of the beautiful landscapes, the combination of window grime and being in a moving vehicle meant that hardly any of them turned out. You'll just have to make the trip yourself to take in the gorgeous sights! :) We made one or two stops along the way, and at one of them a man was making sugar cane juice. We tried a cup and decided we much prefer fruit smoothies, haha. We did eventually make it to our destination, but you'll have to check back here for the rest of the story in our next post.