"Is No Chicken. Chicken Will Kill You..."
...or so said our Vietnamese cabin-mate during our overnight train from Hanoi to DaNang. His statement was in response to my question to Michelle about what exactly the mystery meat was in her lunch that was included in the train fare. Chicken or not, it looked dicey - and, given my tender stomach at the time, I opted out. Even Michelle (who in Russia ate yogurt that sat unrefrigerated for days) declined to partake of it. Fortunately, we had stocked up on banana bread from the bakery in Hanoi before we left.
On the train ride we viewed some amazing scenery during the morning between Hue and DaNang: beaches & ocean to the east, mountains & jungle to the west as we climbed through Hai Vong pass. The rest of the train ride...ehhh, at least it was better than trains in Russia (e.g., bedding was included in the fare price and the restrooms were clean). However, it felt like it was about 100 degrees in the cabin overnight, which was a tad toasty for an "air conditioned sleeper". Our cabin-mate, Troung (which means "school") works for the Saigon Railway Station and had many informative insights about the Vietnamese train system. Of course, he also ate the mystery meat without hesitation, so I'm unsure how credible he really is after all :-)
We got to DaNang convinced we could find and walk to the transit station to catch a bus to Hoi An, which is about 30km away. Clearly we were suffering from the delusion of navigational mastery we had finally attained in Hanoi after staying there 5 days. We walked and walked and walked - and it was about 90 degrees and very humid. We lasted about 1 km, and then walked into a Ford dealership (!) to ask directions. The guy there told us it was another 2-3 km away. Disheartened and very hot & tired, we accepted a ride from this "taxi" that had been tailing us for the better part of our walk. Even though we had turned down several offers of a ride from them because I wasn't feeling very secure about them, at this point I figured being robbed might actually be less painful than sweating in the hot sun with a travel backpack loaded on me as if I were a pack mule. That, plus we really had no clue where we were going - because the bus station had moved since the map in Lonely Planet was published :-)
Turns out the guys were legit and for only $7 USD they drove us to Hoi An. Of course, we had an obligatory stop at a "souvenir shop" - this one a marble workshop. Cool stuff, but I didn't want to carry a 6-foot tall marble Buddha on the rest of the trip. We had to wait there for 20 minutes. Other taxis/minibuses came too. I was inspired when in one of them I saw the passenger upon arrival clearly decline to stop & request the driver to proceed to their destination - and just that easy, the driver acquiesced and did not make them stop. Ah-ha, now I knew what to do! So when after leaving the first place, our driver pulled into another to stop, I told him "no - just go to Hoi An - no more stops until Hoi An"...and he did. Whew - how easy that was.
More on Hoi An in a later post...it's been dreamy!
On the train ride we viewed some amazing scenery during the morning between Hue and DaNang: beaches & ocean to the east, mountains & jungle to the west as we climbed through Hai Vong pass. The rest of the train ride...ehhh, at least it was better than trains in Russia (e.g., bedding was included in the fare price and the restrooms were clean). However, it felt like it was about 100 degrees in the cabin overnight, which was a tad toasty for an "air conditioned sleeper". Our cabin-mate, Troung (which means "school") works for the Saigon Railway Station and had many informative insights about the Vietnamese train system. Of course, he also ate the mystery meat without hesitation, so I'm unsure how credible he really is after all :-)
We got to DaNang convinced we could find and walk to the transit station to catch a bus to Hoi An, which is about 30km away. Clearly we were suffering from the delusion of navigational mastery we had finally attained in Hanoi after staying there 5 days. We walked and walked and walked - and it was about 90 degrees and very humid. We lasted about 1 km, and then walked into a Ford dealership (!) to ask directions. The guy there told us it was another 2-3 km away. Disheartened and very hot & tired, we accepted a ride from this "taxi" that had been tailing us for the better part of our walk. Even though we had turned down several offers of a ride from them because I wasn't feeling very secure about them, at this point I figured being robbed might actually be less painful than sweating in the hot sun with a travel backpack loaded on me as if I were a pack mule. That, plus we really had no clue where we were going - because the bus station had moved since the map in Lonely Planet was published :-)
Turns out the guys were legit and for only $7 USD they drove us to Hoi An. Of course, we had an obligatory stop at a "souvenir shop" - this one a marble workshop. Cool stuff, but I didn't want to carry a 6-foot tall marble Buddha on the rest of the trip. We had to wait there for 20 minutes. Other taxis/minibuses came too. I was inspired when in one of them I saw the passenger upon arrival clearly decline to stop & request the driver to proceed to their destination - and just that easy, the driver acquiesced and did not make them stop. Ah-ha, now I knew what to do! So when after leaving the first place, our driver pulled into another to stop, I told him "no - just go to Hoi An - no more stops until Hoi An"...and he did. Whew - how easy that was.
More on Hoi An in a later post...it's been dreamy!
posted by ToddV at
6:01 PM
