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Published: April 4th 2009
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Da Nang is the fourth largest and a major port city in the South Central Coast of Vietnam and Hoi An is a small city almost next to it. We wanted to stop some smaller cities along our way from Saigon to Hanoi and Da Nang has been told to have numerous sites of natural beauty and historical interest. Also the landscapes I saw from the train's window were breathtaking, so green and so lush, people working on the rice fields with those hats, so synonymous to Vietnam.
Night train from Saigon was.. hmm.. interesting but not a bad experience, to lay down when traveling was the first (but not the last) time experience for me. I did not sleep that much, but the beautiful sunset and sunrise at the next morning were absolutely something worth to see. The train was also safe, clean and as quiet as the full packed train can be. It was also nice to arrive to DaNang right in the morning being ready for the new day.
We caught couple motorbikes, or actually they noticed us at the railway station, helped us to find a really good (and cheap) hotel, brought us there and
later on were our guides during "The Grand Tour motorcycle trip" on the next day. Da Nang itself was so different compared to e.g. Saigon than the city just can be. First of all there were almost no tourists hanging around which meant that we were on the spotlights, everyone was paying attention to us (once again in a good way!) and it was sometimes difficult to find menu's in English language. Next to the river there seemed to be more restaurants and places to go and sample local culinary specialties and be dressed in custom-tailored silk.
We did not know that much what to do and where to go in Da Nang except the Marble Mountains and Hội An's old town which was "in 1999 declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO being a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that displayed a unique blend of local and foreign influences."
We were lucky enough to met those great motoguides who had done these kind of tours around the area years already. Together with them starting from early morning we went to see The Great Countryside Waterfalls and
MySon Sanctuary which was the world cultural heritage site as well ( and like miniversion of Angkor Wat). After them we crossed a small river by boat and Anniina burned her leg to the motorbike's dead hot exhaust pipe.. On our way we saw how local people made noodle paper, they were drying under the sun and nice woman told us the methods and whole preparing process.
Hội An's small city was a complete surprise and mesmerized me totally. I almost hoped that we had decided to stay there overnight, but just almost. It did not matter that Hội An attracted a fair number of tourists, it was still so unique and well preserved place full of French colonial buildings, numerous art and craft shops and tailors. Our friend got couple nice suits done there which took only two days ! He was thrilled to choose materials and colors from all those numerous choices, and the prize versus quality. then..? Well, we were not professionals but I guess Hội An's reputation to be the best plaze in Asia to get some custom tailor made things to do was not coming out of blue. You should have seen all those
beautiful clothes there were for women! I would have need to spend a week there to decide which kind of piece of cloth I would have wanted.
In the end of the day we climbed to see the Marble Mountains. There were actually two of them. The first mountain was called The Heaven and the two times bigger mountain next to it was called The Hell. No need to guess which one we climbed to after a long day walking, wondering and sitting.. The Stone caving village under the Heaven was beautiful and we were lucky enough to catch the great sunset up there. Finally the missing sunset!
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