As experts on trains around the world now, the Vietnamese train meets with our approval — we're in a 6 berth and have a bit of a chat with one local guy travelling in our cabin, whose girlfriend has even more luggage than we do! He is completely into English Premier League football, but still thinks that Roy Keane manages Sunderland, and is into his rock music, and thrilled that Bruce Dickinson hails from the same town as Luce. He hasn't heard of Jimmy Nail, nor Ant 'n' Dec, so didn't go for Donna Air. His experience of North Eastern culture will have to wait another day... His girl and the other guys in our cabin don't speak any English apart from Good Morning, and Good bye... Some of the scenery further south in VietNam is stunning — the rails clinging to the mountainside along the coast. Although the forecast has been rainy all week, we hit it lucky and its clear and bright on Monday morning and we get some great views. Can't help but feel a little smug as this is first Monday morning back to work after Christmas for most people...
The weather holds for an afternoon pottering around Da Nang. There isn't a great deal to see, a Cham museum, which is local limestone carving, and China beach, which is where the US soldiers first landed, and also where they used to hang out for a bit of R&R. The smug feeling soon dissipates though as the heavens open in the evening as we go out for supper accompanied by more plinky plonky music, and some very odd dancing at local favourite Apsara (which is pretty average if you ask us...)
Next morning, after some lengthy discussions on the best mode of transport we taxi to Hoi An, which is the highlight of the local area. It's a town that was untouched by the American war, so retains some of its older buildings and charm. It's a bit draw for tourists, and also the local tradespeople turning it into a huge market town. Not content with the tat that we already bought in Hanoi (an anagram of Hoi An!) and shipped back to the UK via Hong Kong, we return to Da Nang after a decent lunch laden with shopping bags, most of which will be posted back to the UK from Bangkok, as we have a very stingy limit of 15 kg on some of our later flights with Air Asia...
It's chucking it down again when we get back to Da Nang, so find some tonic to go with our gin and some snacks and have dinner at home in our odd, slightly damp room at the Vien Dong Hotel.
Next day is Wednesday, which means heading to Ho Chi Minh (or Saigon as it used to be, and still is for lots of people). The budget allows us to fly down on cheapo airline Jetstar, and the flight is full of Aussies - it dawns on us that its summer holidays down under. We're getting experts at wangling the luggage allowance — balance the bag off the end of the scales on your foot to take some of the weight. Then make a big fuss about repacking holding up the rest of the queue, and they usually let you through.
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