{"id":944,"date":"2024-01-06T12:21:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-06T12:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=944"},"modified":"2024-01-10T03:43:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T03:43:58","slug":"sat-6-jan-phong-nha-hoi-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=944","title":{"rendered":"Sat 6th Jan – Phong Nha -> Hoi An"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Getting to Hoi An from Phong Nha is a journey – there is a five hour train trip and two one hour transfers at either end of the train trip. I think the train is fine. I particularly enjoy going through little towns on the train, where it slows down and you can peak in living rooms and backyards. There was a kid around 8 years old screaming his lungs out in one, and a man banging a steel ring in another. Some have ladies cooking lunch outside, and many tend to their patches of land. Lettuce is a popular crop at the moment. It’s a varied train ride. Alongside the towns, there are innumerable rice paddies, stretches of jungle towards Hoi An, and then the ocean fills in the end of the trip. I think I successfully ask how much a bag of chips (in reality, prawn crackers) costs but Declan is dubious and thinks the cart lady just understood from the context of me holding phat wads of dong (VND) in my outstretched hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t ask about the two ‘hour long’ car transfers, which can only be endured and not enjoyed. Looking outside the window only shows the wreckage of fresh accidents, motorbikes slayed by cars at intersections or roundabouts. ‘Hour long’ being the time ascribed by Google, a challenge easily beaten by our drivers who plough through oncoming traffic of any size and deliver us in forty minutes to our destination, all while texting the wife distractedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoi An has a very touristy old town centre but that’s not a stress at all because there are no cars or motorcycles allowed in – sweet, sweet traffic release. My brain can step down off high alert and enjoy looking around. The pretty emoticon-yellow painted buildings are uniform and attract photo opportunities for the enormous Japanese tour groups. I ask for the bill at late lunch in Vietnamese, very fun. And the cafe waitress is impressed when I order an egg coffee in Vietnamese, also fun. Our Airbnb Experience tutor would be proud of our bashful application of her Survival Vietnamese Crash Course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waking up in Phong Nha to sore calves from yesterday’s trek. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Looking back into Phong Nha township. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Making progress on our south bound expedition of Vietnam. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The reunification express in the flesh. I am uncertain about the state of Vietnam’s rail industry as this appears to be the only train in the entire country as far as I can tell. DW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The polystyrene box kept meowing. The cat doesn’t want to be on the train or in the box, or both. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In an uncharacteristic flair of comfort, Declan has booked us on the soft seats, the other option being the cheaper hard berth. Sadly no movies played on the overhead screens. I would have really gotten behind a viewing of Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited. I found out that Declan’s least favourite tourists are Germans today. He deems them inflexible in travel and their stiff but superior organisation in boarding and alighting the train causes him visible stress. The Vietnamese man behind us stretches in legs out and massages my chair with his bare feet at various intervals, while blasting videos from his phone at full volume, in a show of solidarity with boomers worldwide. CR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n