Travelling Hoi An to Nha Trang (not 1st class)

Woke early in Hoi an to catch the bus to bus to danang. Greeted by the driver who screamed 'take your shoes off' upon our entry to the bus. Also the bus had sleeper berths, not seats, so there were 2 aisles, 3 'beds' across (aisles in between), a top bunk all through the bus and a broken toilet (that's what the sign written in faded permanent texta said) As mentioned before about taking your shoes off upon entry, the whole bus smelled of feet. 40 minutes later we were in danang.
Travelling to the train station made me glad we didn't stay in danang - it didn't seem like the place had much natural beauty nor did it look like it offered tourists a lot (this i worked out in the 90 min I spent there)

Waited a while at the railway station for our train to arrive (from my experience of 2 times - Vietnam trains aren't punctual) and once it arrived it was a bit of a dump. Crowded, old and a bit of a stuffy smell. Yep this 10hr trip should fly by. The entertainment for the trip on the tv consisted of replayed news in Vietnamese, a Vietnamese comedian in Vietnamese, the transporter 3 in English but pretty sure the copy was pirated (I could see it was a div-x file when it loaded up), a David Attenborough doco redubbed in Vietnamese, Home alone 2 in Vietnamese and jingle all the way (starring Arnie, Tom hanks wife, the kid who played annakin skywalker and comedian sinbad) in Vietnamese. Top shelf.
The prawn crackers we bought tasted and smelled a little too much like prawns and we didnt dare try the hot chicken wheeled out on a trolley and served from a large cardboard box - also served (& probably cooked) by the guy who checked my tickets.

Enough of the negative - i got used to the cabin smell & we still really enjoy traveling on a train and seeing the Vietnamese countryside including going past Quong Ngai which is near where the Mai Lai massacre occured during the Vietnam-American war and despite my whinging about the conditions on the train I'm still pretty sure we will continue to use the rail system.


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