Nha Trang, Vietnam
Our last day in Hoi An was not spent in the pool. After the families cleared out of the hotel, the pool was deemed unusable. The staff dumped enormous amounts of chlorine in to shock it good. After seeing the amount of spitting and nose blowing in and beside the pool the night before, no one had much of an interest in it. This cultural difference I do not understand.
Cards were played, we hiked around the old city again and waited to travel to Da Nang to catch an overnight train.
The ride to Da Nang took an hour but we were still there in plenty of time for the 7:45PM departure. The train station all abuzz with streams of people and scratchy undecipherable announcements every 15 minutes amid the stickiness of a non air-conditioned waiting room.
The sleeping cars were full so we took the "soft seat" coach. This consisted of a vinyl seat with AC. I told the boys it would be like riding in an airplane. Limiting water consumption before take off to avoid the toilets no one wanted to use, books in hand, we were ready to go. OK. So I forgot it is not like riding in an airplane. The AC was turned to a maximum freezing temperature, the vinyl seats do not go well with bare skin (note to self - wear long pants next time), the smoke from the coach attendant was nauseating, the cockroaches kept crawling up my legs, and my bag needed to be held to avoid mice from getting in. Needless to say there was not a lot of sleep going on. Except for Nate. That kid is amazing. He can sleep through anything. Maybe because he only goes one speed all day and that is full speed. When it comes to sleep, he needs to charge his batteries.
A positive was seeing the sunrise over the mountains. The colours were beautiful.
The train needed to stop for extended periods at sidings to let other trains pass and this was a chance to see a woman go through her 5AM morning chores in the courtyard of her country home. She hauled water out of the well and proceeded to wash her dishes, swept the dirt of the courtyard to remove the leaves that had fallen, transplanted a plant to vine along the wall, and used the corner of the yard as an outhouse. So much living happening outside.
Our train arrived an hour late at 7:15AM. A man from the hotel picked us up and had a room ready for us. The cool shower felt great.
The main purpose for the overnight in Nha Trang was to break up the 22 hour train trip to Ho Chi Minh City. Websites advertise Nha Trang as having pristine beaches and the most beautiful coastline. I thought it would be great way to spend an overnight before carrying on to HCMC. I suppose if we weren't such beach snobs that might have happened, but I doubt it. The amount of garbage on the beach yesterday was astounding. The water itself had a stream of green guck running through it and overall it felt uncomfortably warm. It could have been due to being a Monday (many Vietnamese families flock to the beach on weekends) and no one had had a chance to clean it up. Even the sand was filled with cigarette butts and felt dirty. Ahhh gone are the days of squeaky Australian sand with cool refreshing, clean water.
The city itself feels fairly tame by Vietnamese standards and is lined with luxury beach side hotels. If I had booked in here for a week at the beach I would have been greatly disappointed. As it is, the break from the train was good.
Levi is keen to finish his math work and move on to grade 9 content. Lots of math being done these days. With school at home being finished, Levi thinks we should go home. For him, there is no point in the trip anymore.
The boys found these pup to help fill the dog void left by Willis.
We ready ourselves for another overnight journey on a "soft seat" in coach 2 on the SE1train bound for HCMC.
