The train’s departure didn’t change, and after dinner with Nam, he brought me to the train station and put me in the train. Only part of the way – around that broken bridge – would be by bus. Easy enough, and perfectly organised. There were not really enough seats on the buses, so they brought some of those tiny plastic chairs for people to sit in the aisle 🙂
I had a sleeper ticket and the night was fine. Whenever, I guess around breakfast, someone walked through the train, selling little papers. I had read online that that should be for food – so I bought one. And then started worrying: nothing happened after that. There was no food, maybe I had bought whatever else? Maybe I had to go and pick my food somewhere? But some other guy in the compartment also had such a ticket and was happily waiting. So I just stayed. And really, eventually the food cart came.
People changed, and whenever, some non-vietnamese business guy stayed in our compartment. He didn’t really know when to get of, and when the train guy shouted his station name, he ran towards the door. But came back a few minutes later: it hadn’t been his stop, that would only be the next one. I felt very well prepared with my phone, simcard and google maps.
From Danang to Hoi An I had some pickup service booked – I absolutely didn’t want to discuss prices with taxi drivers! So I had to wait a while at the train station and bought some pineapple slices. They came with a little packet of spices and trying to open it, I poured it all over myself. Great! Also, that was some actually spicy stuff and thus quite weird on a pineapple. Well, I tried it!
After arriving at the Hotel (yes, a room just for myself! wow!) I went out again and walked around the old town. It’s SO beautiful!
Later, I met a CS girl at her cute little coffeeshop, Rosie’s cafe, and we then went for dinner with a friend of hers.
The next day, because I had been writing emails with some guy from Hanoi who kept talking about motorbike tours, I wanted to rent a scooter! I went to withdraw some money (should police stop me for whatever reason, I would need money to be able to bribe them! 😀
) and then very officially rented a scooter from the man who was always hanging around in front of the hotel. The first helmet he offered me was small, but he came back with a bigger one. Unfortunately that bigger helmet didn’t have the necessary sticker, but well, I guess nobody cares anyways.
I found a gas station, and then, holding my phone with google maps open, went towards My Son. I quickly realized going around noon was a bad idea and put on my long sleeve jacket. Hidden from the sun was better and temperature-wise it didn’t change much anyways.
In front of the My Son entrance, there were some other foreigners with their motorbikes and I just asked them if I could follow them! We first went to a restaurant, then left our scooters there (saved the money for the official parking!) and went to visit the site. The 4 of us booked a guide and got a private tour. It was HOT and I had decided to do less sight seeing and more hanging out at the beach and therefore planned to move to a hostel at the sea the next day. One guy from our group also happened to stay there and we decided we’d meet again.
When I was back in Hoi An, I had planned to attend an English class a cs girl did in some nearby village and her boyfriend picked me up by scooter! I brought chocolate but it was too soft to be eaten like this and had to be put in the fridge first, to go back into a solid state. After the class, we ate at her house and then went out for dessert! They offered me to stay there for the night and to have breakfast together at her workplace (some very touristy restaurant belonging to a museum) and so I stayed. We went to bed quite early – her and me sharing the bed while the boyfriend had to sleep on the floor – and they got up equally early, around 4, and I think did some yoga. At 6 we left to her work, got the rather expensive, but really delicious breakfast, then her boyfriend had to leave to get to his work, and we had a coffee. After that she showed me around the museum – I got in for free with her and there was not a single other tourist! Yea!
After that, she organized me a mototaxi to take me back to Hoi An. I visited some more stuff there, in the old city, but it was HOT. At 9 in the morning already!
I had the hotel call me a taxi and went to An Bang beach to move into “Under the Coconut tree”. The place was THE perfect hostel! It was all open, no real walls, they stopped below the ceiling already and were made from wood, bamboo, whatever. Toilet and shower were outdoors, too, there was a bar with sitting area and the beach was just a few meters away. I stayed at the beach and, in the evening, met Akos again, and we went to have a drink a few meters further along the beach in the only place still open.
The next day was another beach day, and later I went to the city with Akos. He had bought a scooter and was slowly crossing Vietnam, north to south! I asked the hostel people if they could borrow me a helmet, they could, and he took me to the city to walk around and eat something. We found a restaurant serving cheap beer if you just ordered food, and that’s what we did. Daniel joined us: He had had an accident with his scooter and was walking with crutches. After a few rounds, however, they didn’t want to give us more beer at that special price and so we left 😉
I got juice somewhere at a place on the street and then we went back to our hostel.