Hoi An to Nha Trang via Quy Nhon: From the ridiculous to the (nearly) sublime

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It has been an eventful two days which have brought us to a point nearly two thirds of the way down Vietnam. I am currently sitting on the balcony of our latest hostel looking out over the South China sea which is dotted with fishing boats, my view being interrupted only by giant Palm Trees laden with Coconuts. Lest you think that we are in heaven, there is one further detail which I must not omit. Between the third floor balcony and the beach is a dual carriageway along which vehicles thunder and ‘toot-toot’ at all times of the day and night. This is absolutely normal for Vietnam.

Our hostel is run by a Canadian/Vietnamese couple and apparently they moved from Canada to Vietnam about 8 months ago. Owen says that he has not spent one night in Vietnam without ear plugs in. That is the way to find this country heavenly and to allow your mind to believe that you are in a sleepy back water - trust us, we’re converts!

We last left you in Hoi An the night before we were due to leave…

21 September 2010

Once again, we were woken by the alarm and arose, packed and made our way down for our final breakfast at the Hai Au Hotel. Just as we were finishing, a girl from the ‘tailor’s’ arrived with my final shirt and, since we had already checked out, I ended up trying it on in the loo! It fits but it is far from the perfect and, apparently, it’s my fault for having oversized upper arms!! I must have explained that I would prefer the arms to be too loose than too tight at least five times but, sadly, to no avail. I’ll probably end up splitting the seam the first time I wear it but, with less than half an hour to go until we were due to catch our bus, I decided that there was no more time to debate the state of the garment so paid and bid the (admittedly sweet) girl goodbye. I will say this for the Vietnamese we have met so far: they certainly know how to disarm you with a smile.

And then, of course, we set about waiting for our bus to arrive. At nine o’clock the manager of the hotel shouted over from the reception desk that the bus was 10 minutes late and, predictably, by 9.30am it had still not put in an appearance. Gregg went to ask for an update and was advised that the bus had to pick up someone else before us but that it was definitely a bus and would be here soon.

And then, as if by magic, the bus arrived. Except, it wasn’t a bus but a beaten up ancient Renault 14 (or something similar) that shook as we drove and sounded as if it was running on its wheel rims. 15 minutes later we rocked up in a town in the middle of nowhere and were told to wait for the bus which would be here in five minutes. A good ten minutes later, the man that we had been waiting with suddenly stood up and ran across the road beckoning us to follow as a battered minibus drew to a stop at the curb on the opposite side of the road.

We had paid $15 each for this trip and presumed that this was another minibus to get to the bus scenario. That was until I watched less than 200,000 dong ($10) change hands for our tickets and we were shown inside and told to sit at the back.

This was a 14 seat minibus which was already accommodating at least 18 passengers. I sat down at the back making the fourth person in a row of four seats and Gregg went to sit on a stool in front of me. The “conductor” made it overwhelmingly clear that Gregg was to sit next to me and not in front of me. Both of our hearts sank as the realisation set in that we were doomed to 8 contorted hours packed like sardines inside an old ford transit of a baked bean tin. You might be interested to read that the maximum number of sardines reached 26.

There was supposedly aircon but it was so inefficient that the windows were open in order to let air in which would have been a blessing except:

1. We had been squeezed in to the only seats abutting a window that did not open;
2. The black out plastic that covered all of the windows in the back of the van had been scraped off next to Gregg;
3. The Vietnamese don’t feel the heat like we do and therefore only opened most of the windows by about 1 ½ inches and for short periods of time before closing them again;
4. The only window that was fully open was obscured by the head of the “conductor” at all times except when the “conductor” switched with the driver who insisted on keep ing all of the windows closed despite the fact that the aircon was not too weak to keep us anywhere near cool. Every time anyone opened a window in sheer desperation, it was swiftly closed again.

During that journey, we both thought a lot of unforgivable things and spent a good few hours scared to check the time because denial was most certainly preferable to know how much longer this hell on earth was to continue.

Fortunately, the kamikaze nature of the driving resulted in us arriving in Quy Nhon 3 hours earlier than we had expected and, remarkably, in one piece.

We hadn’t been expecting to find heaven in Quy Nhon but had decided that making the trip from Hoi An to Nha Trang in two stages, rather than taking an over night bus to do it in one, was probably preferable.

Our first task upon arrival was to find somewhere to stay. This was the first place at which we had not pre-booked somewhere so we strapped our packs on our backs and set off in the direction of some of the budget options listed in the guidebook. We were absolutely starving, having not eaten since breakfast, and our nerves were in tatters so we intended to find somewhere quickly, shower and then head out for some food. The first place that we tried was just plain odd. Many of the really budgety places in Vietnam insist on having room doors with opaque glass in them - hideous in my view - and this was one of those. We decided to move on by which time we were literally leaking with sweat and getting seriously short on enthusiasm because we were so hungry. Across the road were two big 3* hotels that glinted and beckoned us inwards but we remained resolute and headed in to the next budget affair.

We took a room, more out of desperation than desire and then the day’s dramas really took their toll on me and I burst into tears, through which, the place that we were staying looked hideous and I couldn’t even face having a shower in the bathroom. Gregg decided that we needed to eat so we left the grimness behind and hailed a taxi into town picking a café listed in the guidebook as our destination. We arrived, paid the taxi and he drove off just as we were realising that we were in the right place but the café was gone. During our hour long search for food we did manage to come up trumps in one respect - we happened upon the station and booked tickets on to Nha Trang for the following morning which immediately lifted the gloom that had encased us.

When we did eventually find somewhere to eat, I gulped mine down so quickly that I gave myself indigestion. We then headed off to find Wifi so that we could book a place to stay in Nha Trang followed by a return to the hotel and an early night (and I managed to face the bathroom and have a shower too).

22 September 2010

The alarm woke us at 7am and we were up and out by 7:25am, resolved that today was another day and was going to be better than yesterday. I should pause here to say that, after a meal and a good night’s sleep, the place didn’t look quite as it had through my hunger the night before but I am nevertheless pleased that we only stayed the one night.

It is not possible to pick the Reunification Express up in Quy Nhon so we took a taxi for the 10km (I still can’t get used to not measuring distance in miles) trip to Dieu Tri which is the closest stop. We arrived over an hour early but relieved that we knew what we were getting with the train and looking forward to a few hours of effective aircon and a seat each (all train tickets come with a seat number here). We were not disappointed. The train was running a good 45 minutes late by the time it left Dieu Tri but it didn’t matter to us as this mode of transport was bliss compared with the horrors of the previous day.

We arrived in Nha Trang, jumped in to a taxi and headed to the Tide Hotel. We booked this place because it is not in the central backpacker’s area of Nha Trang which is, by all accounts, a bit like Club 18-30 Vietnam style. We were greeted with wide smiles by both Owen and his wife, Mai, and shown to our room. It isn’t the Ritz but the rooms are clean and our hosts are delightful and extremely helpful and friendly which is great for taming the culture shock - which really gets you in Vietnam.

We were given recommendations of where to eat at the local restaurants and a promise from Owen that he would take us to his favourite Bia Hoi (locally made beer) joint between 7 and 8pm. So, we headed off to a seafood place where you order by weight. We had 30g of ‘shrimps’ - massive prawns to you and me - which were cooked on the BBQ and tasted exquisite. But for the recommendation, we may well have passed this place by and what a treat we would have missed.

We returned to our hostel via the beach and were then treated to an evening of stories and Bia Hoi from Owen. He really is a great host and a mine of information about Vietnam, a country which he is clearly very passionate about.

Here’s to more fun in Nha Trang tomorrow…


p.s. none of the photos on this entry are of Quy Nhon, there is a reason for that - neither of us felt a desire to take any.

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Photos

Friendly baby Gecko
Meeting us on our arrival at The Tide Hotel

The Beach
As the sun was starting to go down

Celebrations
It is currently the time of the full moon festival and the place that we ate at was set up half for a children's celebration and half for adults to eat.

30g Fresh Shrimp
They tasted even better than they look

An evening stroll on the beach
Not much after 6pm

The full moon
Very difficult to capture with a point and shoot camera, but I tried!