Writing this in bed while eating flan, my life is good.
As those of you who read these blogs regularly know, I like trains. I think it all started when Val and I took a train in Thailand which was lovely. I keep trying to repeat that experience and it never happens. This one was better than India but certainly no where close to Thailand.
I had heard that the scenery from HCMC to Da Nang is lovely so I decided not to fly. A bus was 22 hours and the train 18 hours for comparable price. I checked VN Rail to buy a ticket. Oh oh, this is what they were talking about with everyone traveling for Tet. I had a choice between a hard seat, soft seat, hard berth (6 per room) or soft berth (4 per room). I found one train leaving in my three day window with a soft berth. I grabbed it. Unfortunately, it was an upper berth.
There was a Vietnamese couple in the two lower berths, a Vietnamese man in the other upper berth, and me. In Thailand, the four bunks are seats that convert to beds. Not so here. To start, I could not climb into the upper berth. That was fun. There is one tiny foot hold to get up 5 feet. Nope, not this ass, thank you very much. I had to stand on the table to hoist myself up. Very undignified.
Then, the couple below spread out their dinner on the table so I was trapped unless I wanted to step in their dinner. Eventually, I had to get up/down. I will leave my description of the bathroom as 'displeasing'. I wandered up and down the cars to see if there were any seats to be sat in. Nope, that train was packed. I was stuck with my bed as the only place to be. Every one in Vietnam is heading home for Tet and taking the whole family and several large boxes each.
Here are some pictures:
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This is coach 10, bed 19 (top) |
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These are the hard seats. Never take a hard seat. |
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Soft seats looked pretty good but no storage |
I wish I could have gotten a picture of the hard berths. Those room were filled with so many people (6 adults and countless children) and so much food!
Anyway, it was terrible but we made it, only three hours late. If anyone is asking, take a bed bus if you can't get a lower berth.
I got a moto to my hotel (Iris Hotel) which is SWANKY!! I guess I wasn't paying attention when I booked, this room is twice as expensive as normal ($C30/night) but it comes with free breakfast which is excellent so I guess it balances out.
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room 306 |
Threw my stuff everywhere so it never looked good again and then headed out to explore Da Nang a bit. There are two big markets and a Dragon Bridge that spits fire and water but not on a night I am going to be here. There are lots of Dragon Bridge pictures.
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Han Market, two stories. |
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Dragon Bridge day |
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Dragon Bridge night |
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The other side of the river by night |
Early to bed because I didn't get any sleep on the train. I can't even remember what I had for dinner. Oh yeah, I do. I ate a huge plate of greens with garlic. I also sat with a woman from Australia who is a vegan. How do I know that? Haha, she told me of course. Nice lady, gave me some tips about Hoi An, my next stop.
Next day was forecast to maybe rain so I just walked around the city and saw some sites. But first I had my free breakfast. YUM!! Noodles and broth and chicken and prawns and an egg and greens! I am going to post a picture for Wes's sake
I also ordered coffee, nothing new there. Except instead of sweetened condensed milk, it came with a little pitcher of some sort of sweet clotted yogurty milk. I dutifully stirred it into my coffee but it was lumpy and sour so not the best coffee.
Well, the next morning I order guava juice instead. I watched a woman at the next table eating the little pot of milk with a spoon. And then they brought me one too even though I hadn't ordered coffee. It is yogurt, not milk! It comes with all of the breakfasts. I think they just forgot that I ordered milk coffee the day before. So, dumb tourist here to amuse waitstaff.
Then I went to a Pagoda which had lovely bonsai trees and water features.
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Bonsai Gardner (the name of my next band) |
Then to the other market, Con Market I think
Then I walked across the Dragon Bridge and along the other side of the river and back across a different bridge. I saw a brewery called Seven Bridges so I assume there are seven bridges because if I can't get accurate geography information from a beer bottle, where can I!
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Just imagine how many pictures I would post if it breathed fire! |
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Other side of the river fishing boat dogs |
Early to bed again. I couldn't tell if I was fighting something, the smog was finally getting to me or if I was still recovering from the train. Whatever, I feel better today.
I had grand plans to get up at 5:30, free breaky and then take the yellow bus to Marble Mountain as early as possible. Nope, I rejected my 5:30 alarm and got up at 7:30. This time I ordered eggs and sausage. I know, BORING!. But I was fooled by the picture. Vietnam has lots of kinds of sausage and the picture showed, like, four kinds on the plate. My plate, on the other hand, had a cut up fried weiner. Hrumph. I know better. I would not go to Denny's in Wisconsin and order My Quang so why would I order eggs and sausage here. I will do better tomorrow, my last day at Iris.
The yellow Da Nang - Hoi An bus runs between the two cities on a constant loop. Marble Mountain is between the two. There is a bus stop close to my hotel. The yellow bus arrived and a lady yelled at me to get on. I wasn't sure it was my bus but it was yellow so I hoped... She yelled Hoi An at another tourist at one point so I figured I was good to go. I was lucky, some passengers had to leap onto the moving bus.
Marble Mountains are five rocky hills named for the five elements. Only one of them is open to the public (Thuy Son Mountain, don't ask me which element this one represents). Here are a kajillion pictures. By the way, I had to climb a mountain, down the other side, back up and back down so enjoy. The mountain is covered with pagodas and caves. And stairs, so many stairs. (I used two cameras so these aren't necessarily in order)
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Crimson Sunbird |
I also found a stair case behind the one (!) bathroom so, of course, I climbed it. Well, it turned out to be to the highest point (there was a sign but I missed it (metaphor for my life?).
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Stairs never look as steep in pictures |
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The other Marble Mountains |
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this one shows the five better |
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I could see all of the way to Da Nang, there's the Dragon Bridge again |
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And the sign I missed on the way up |
More random Marble Mountain pictures
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Marble Mountain cat |
And to finish:
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I can't tell, do you think he likes me? |
OMG! You stired your yogourt into the coffee! Classic. I would've done the same. Drooling over the other, much better tasting, coffee diaries
ReplyDeleteThey have weasel coffee here. I assume it is like that civet cat coffee where the weasel eats the beans, poops them out and then tourists pay lots of money to consume it. I will, of course, be bring some home!
DeleteI am writing from Da Nang train station. Surprisingly, it has much better WiFi than my otherwise nice Hoi An hotel. I am waiting for train to HCMC. Because of you, I have been studying my travel voucher. I have seat 11 on car 11. It is soft sleeper, but I am not sure that it a lower bunk. I hope that seat 11 on 11 is lucky.
ReplyDelete