vinh to nha trang

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well not updated the blog for a while so i thought it was about time i got it done. since last time we have left vinh and headed to hue. we did this on the ever so luxurios 1st class train overnight in a sleeper carriage. my luxurious i mean stuck in a room 6ft by 6ft by 6ft with 6 of us rammed in it stacked three high on each side in bunks. As usual the train was a good hour and a half late arriving at hue so meant we spent a total of about ten hours on it.
Once at Hue we quickly managed to find a good cheap guesthouse and this one had a pool as well. The town itself is quite busy and has 5 universities and is very touristy. Well compared to the middle of nowhere in loas it is. we also managed to find a KFC. wouldnt normally eat at these type of places to often but when your stuck on fried rice or noodle soup for weeks at a time its a good change. we did want to go to a mcdonalds but we found out that there isnt any in vietnam. So i big greasy chicken burger it had to be for two days. the town is divided into two and split by river. one the side we stayed was the french side and the other was the older part of the town being surrounded by a high wall and a moat. in the french side there was lots of bars and shops. i even braved it and got my hair cut. Not sure the girl doing it was actually a hair dresser or she was just trying to make a few dong. but she did an ok job although adams hair was a lot shorter than he wanted. we stopped here for three days before we decided to move onto danang. although we do wish we stayed a bit longer. after the expected 80km ride which ended up to be a mamouth 125km in the boiling hot weather and with the hai van pass in the middle. this pass is about a 10km climb being quite steep in places but does have an ammazing view of danang if you can get a gap in the fog to see.
we arrived in da nang late on just as it was going dark it then took a while to find a hotel at a reasonable price. this town doesnt see many tourists and there is only one bar where westeners go but it is well expensive for a beer so we didnt go there. After staying for 3 nights which was 2 nights to long we then cycled the short distance to hoi an. which by this point we had been told by lots of people it was nice. the ride was 30km but on busy roads.
we arrived at hoi an early in the morning to make the most of the day. we booked into a guesthouse that was recommended by lonely planet and after getting the price right down we decided to stay there. The town itself is much older than most others as it survived any bombing during the war. its full of old french buildings and is sat on the banks of a river (no idea what the name is). the town has lots of tailors about 200 i think making custom made suits and dresses and whatever you want really. you can get suits made from 40 dollars to 500 dollars depending on what you want. i got two base layers made ready for my return to cold britain. the town also had many bars and places to eat. although we tended to end up at the same bar each night as they did a good bananna shake.
after hoi an we then had to make the journey back up the road to danang in the hope that we could get a train the same day to nha trang. when we got to the train station we found that the only train that could take our bikes was the next morning. this meant that we had to spend another night in da nang and then spend what turned out to be 13 1/2 hours on a train the next day. although this time we did only have 4 bed in one room and there wasnt any one in the 4th.
that evening we arrived at nha trang at around 10pm and usiong a map from the lonely planet managed to find a hotel. managing not to get killed by all the mad scooter drivers that dont put there lights on when its dark. or think its a good idea to put there rain coat over it because its pissing it down. the town is on the coast for once which means we dont have to ride to the beach and also has a good little water park which costs just over a quid to get in.
At the moment we have stayed here for 3 nights and this evening we will be getting a ten hour train down to hoi chi minh city (saigon). Oh the joy of another train. after this we then have 1000km to ride all the way back to bangkok stoping at a few palces en route.

by for now.

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