Vietnam part 2 – Over night sleeper trains
After 3 nights and days in the Saigon area it was time to head north on the overnight sleeper train to Da Nang on what's known as The Reunification Express. The train was due to leave at 11.00 PM so we spent the day in Vung Tao, a beach resort about an hour south of Saigon. On the way back to Saigon, I was overcome with “Saigon Belly”, the meal I ate in a rather dodgy Vung Tao cafe earlier had come back to haunt me. Stocked up with Imodium we headed off to catch the train.
The AC sleeper compartment had 4 beds in it and was comfortable enough for an over night journey. Clean sheets and bedding were provided and the bed had a soft mattress. The carriages had seen better days, but were a lot better than I had been preparing myself for as I have experienced sleeper trains on my travels around India. Each carriage had a washroom and toilet, with a fairly clean western style toilet, which proved to be a bonus given my stomach affliction.
The journey to Da Nang took about 16 hours, the views were pleasant enough, mainly looking out on rice and vegetable fields and distant mountains, but they become a bit monotonous after 16 hours.
The train made about half a dozen stops along the way. During one of the stops I got off the train to buy some breakfast from one of the dozens of women on the platform selling a variety of snacks and drinks. I gestured and pointed to the vendor that I wanted 2 X 1.5 litre bottles of water, 2 hard boiled eggs and a tray of boiled rice with a fried chicken leg. I’d made the mistake of having a 100,000 Dong note in my hand (about £3.20), so when I asked her how much, naturally she said 100,000. I laughed and said I wasn’t paying that much. I told her 50,000 was about right and gave her a 50,000 note. She took the 50,000 note and laughing with me said she wanted another 20,000. At this point I snatched the 50,000 note back out of her hand and gave her the carrier bag of food back and turned to walk away, so she backed down, snatched the 50,000 note back out my hand and said it was OK. TBH, 50,000 was too much, but just like in The Philippines western tourists have to get used to being ripped off by the locals.
As we drew nearer to Da Nang the skies darkened and eventually it started raining. On arrival at Da Nang it was torrential. The temperature had also dropped from a pleasantly tropical 33c in Saigon to around 15c.
Our final destination for the day was Cua Dai Beach, Hoi An which is about 30km south of Da Nang. The standard taxi fare for westerners to Hoi An was 400,000 Dong (£13). On leaving Da Nang I was impressed by how modern the city is, it’s a huge manufacturing and business centre with lots of modern business parks, retail and entertainment parks. The roads are all brand new dual carriageways with hardly any traffic. The journey only took about 30 minutes along the dead straight, brand new 4 lane coastal highway.
When we arrived at our hotel, it became very clear that this was low season. Cua Dai beach was closed for the winter, the hotel was empty. It would have been a great place in warmer weather, it was right on the beach, was nicely appointed and the staff were friendly. We had booked for 2 nights, but we decided to abandon the hotel after 1 night and find somewhere in Hoi An town itself as a beach was the last place we wanted to be in the cold wind and rain.
The following day we found a lovely hotel in Hoi An, The Thanh Van. It was too cheap to be true, 25 USD a night for a really nice and large double room.
Hoi An itself is a fairly small town, but as you venture in to the ancient part of town, you can feel yourself being taken back 300 years. The Vietnamese have done a fantastic job preserving the ancient houses, even if most of them have been converted into trendy art shops, cafe’s, bars and general souvenir shops. However, none of this takes anything away from the beauty of the town. I’d read a lot about Hoi An, seen dozens of photo’s and was expecting it to be pretty, but I really couldn’t have imagined just how beautiful the town was. I fell in love with it immediately, it is a stunning place by day, but at night when the famous lanterns are lit it is quite simply magical.
You can see everything in Hoi An in one day and night, as we had 2 days in Hoi An, we booked a coach tour to the Cham Temple ruins at My Son for our last day. My Son is Vietnam’s own Angkor Wat (Siem Reap) although on a slightly smaller scale than their Cambodian neighbours. The temples had been abandoned about 300 years ago, and were rediscovered and restored by the French about 100 years ago. Unfortunately the largest and most impressive temple was completely destroyed by a B-52 bombing raid in 1969. Around a third of the temples were destroyed during the war with the US.
That evening we had to head back to Da Nang Station to catch the 10.00 PM sleeper train to Nha Trang.....
more to follow
