VIETNAM, Nov-dec 2004

Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Hoi An, Danang, Muy Ne

STRANDED IN DANANG After 4 long days of endless rain in Hoi An, we finally decided to move on to Muy Ne via Danang on the train. We were driven to Danang in a luxurious air-conditioned car, beeping our way through the 2 wheeled traffic. Unfortunately for her, a girl on a scooter caught the eye of our driver as he kept beeping to get her attention, driving dangerously beside her for a good 20 mins .... he even tried to talk to her through the window but failed to get any response ... was she an acquaintance or was it just our driving exercising his chat up routine ? We eventually left her behind after long minutes of sexual harassement on the road to arrive at the train station. We were then half an hour early although our train never showed up. Hours passed as we kept asking when would it be coming, to finally getting our definitive answer : there would be no train tonight. Come back tomorrow at 7am, the woman said. So we took our bags and walked out of the station looking for the nearest hotel, which was, of course, fully booked. After struggling with a taxi driver over our next destination, we arrived at a scummy hotel for USD16 a room which sounded reasonable until the guy told us it was indeed USD16 per head while the price list on his desk clearly said "room rates : USD16 including breakfast". The fuming outrage on both our faces eventually got us the room for 16 .. without breakfast though. The next morning, we departed to the train station to find that, of course, there was no train. ... with a very fine explanation that went : "no train today, tomorrow same-same, accident in Hue" OK ... now, do we want to stay in Danang waiting undefinitely for a train or do we take the bus .. ? And here we were at the intercity bus station, trying to get closer to the famous sand dunes of Muy Ne .... destination Qui Nhon, a real non place. The 4 hour journey was transformed into a 6 hour epic through the flooded countryside, the water up to knee level. Rice paddies became even lakes on both sides of the road, altered by angry currents whenever we crossed what probably used to be a bridge. As we louldy beeped our way further, the rain got thinner and eventually stopped. In Qui Nhon, we got dropped off at Barbara's Kiwi cafe where we were greeted by a Norwegian alcoholic. A nice enough place to be stuck for a few hours but preferably not for a few days especially with a philosophying drunken scandinavian old fart ... Hope came with the Open Tour bus that would take us directly to Muy Ne via Nha Trang, which meant we could get there for the next day, only to discover moments later that for the same reasons, all the buses were stuck in Hue .... Resigned to our fate, we took a stroll around town and along the water front. We didnt have to go far to spot an interesting place : here was a half burried tank rignt on the beach.... cool. Anyway after this quick excitement, we resolved ourselves to go and find an internet cafe and find out what was happening with the typoon. And according to Vietnam News daily, the typhoon so far had killed 27 people around Danang , and disrupted the Norht South trains (which, according to Barbara is quite unusual despite the floodings). We gave a miss to the local pagodas and waterfalls to concentrate on how to get out of Qui Nhon although .. I'm sure its a very pleasant place. The people there were extremely helpful and disarmingly honest unlike their counterparts of the bigger cities... Shopkeepers kept running after Jim to give him the change... ! back to top