Day 20: Train to Dong Hoi

Saturday, 11/9/2024

Was up at 6:00am.  Showered and got dressed, packed up the last few things and went down for breakfast.

Saw Joe at breakfast, so was able to say goodbyes, but Mark had left very early and was already gone.

I went back to the room to grab my bags and then went to check out of the room and pay my final bill. This was the 2nd night of the stay, laundry and my bar tab from the first night.  Total cost - $50.

I waited about 10 minutes for the ride to show up.  While I waited, I checked with the reception to see if they could get my train ticket booked, but the data they had access too was not matching up to what I saw on the railway site.  I was hesitant to have them book something only to find out it was not actually available as they had stuff listed that the official website said was sold out.

Decided I would just buy it online while on the drive up there to save me the hassle of going to the ticket counter and trying to communicate with an agent.  It can be a toss-up if you will get someone who speaks any English at all.

The car arrived, actually the hotels 15-person van, but I was only person going on the ride.  The driver loaded my bags in the back and I got in.  Was told the ride should take about 1 hour.

Nothing special about the ride up, just driving through the main parts of Hoi An and Danang, traffic was busy, but not too insane.  I did manage to buy my ticket online while we were on the road and it said it would process within 4 hours.  I was a bit worried if it took that long as I would miss the train I wanted, but it arrived in 30 minutes to my email.

Crossing a river in Danang.

Arrived at the station, tipped the driver as he unloaded my bags and went inside.  It was too early to enter the main boarding area, so had to wait outside in the lobby area where there were far less seats and no access to a restroom, as well as being open to the outside, so no AC either.  

That lasted 20 minutes or so; I guess they only let you into the main boarding area 1 hour prior to the train arriving.

Once allowed, I got into the boarding area, which was climate controlled and went to use the restroom I was needing quite badly by then.

I then sat and read for about 40 minutes till I heard the announcement for my train arriving.  At that point they allowed us to go outside onto the platform.

When the train arrived, there was a bit of confusion trying to find my carriage as the numbers did not appear on any of the cars. I wasn’t sure where I needed to be, so I started to walk along the train and then saw them putting out the numbers once the train stopped.  I was then able to find my carriage.

I had booked a sleeper cabin which is 4 bunks in a room.  They also have 6 person bunks for less money, but much less room, and cannot sit up in those either.  All the regular seats were sold out, which would have been even cheaper, but more like sitting on an airplane.

I found my cabin and 3 of the bunks were occupied by a Vietnamese family.  A couple with a high school aged daughter.

As luck would have it, my ticket was for one of the top bunks.  They all got a good laugh watching me trying to climb up into that bunk. A foot peg on the wall by the door at waist height and grab handle above are how you pull yourself up into the bunk.

I tossed both my bags onto the bunk and pulled my fat ass up.  Then removed my shoes and put them on the shelf at the foot area of the bed.

My cabin bunk view.

Was not the most comfortable, and I probably could have put one of the bags in that same area, but left them both on the head of the bed and sat so I could face out the window, though it was low enough I could only see what was on the ground just outside the train.

The train left the station on time and got up to a good pace with a bit of rocking back and forth.

As we neared the section that ran along the coast, the family moved out into the narrow hallway to look out the windows.  The mother waved at me to come down and look, so I got down and went out to view the ocean and beach that was maybe 0.5km (about ¼ mile) off from the tracks as we moved around the mountains along the coast.

This was the same range I had ridden the bike over a few days before, even saw some of the road we had ridden from the train.

The Pacific coast from the train.

Carriage hallway, very narrow.

A few minutes later, back in the cabin, the father returned from somewhere, he had left even before train took off, and he started to ask me questions.  He spoke fairly good English and understood me well enough.  He asked about my travels.

Turned out he and his family were from Dong Hoi and would be getting off there as well.

Sometime later they were all having some food they had brought with them.  He offered me a hard-boiled egg, then gave me a second one when I accepted the first, and also a napkin with some salt and spices poured out onto it to dip the egg in.

His wife was also cutting up a cucumber and he gave me 4 spears from it.  I am not a huge fan of raw cucumber, but I accepted and ate most of it as I had no food of my own beyond a bag of chips in my bag.

They next had some kind of fruit and offered me a few slices.  Tasted similar to an apple, but very sour and full of seeds.  I picked out the seeds, and ate some of the fruit, but left the rest and tossed it later.

They then dozed off and I too was falling asleep, but since my bags were in the way I could not just lay down on the bed, so had to prop myself up with the pillow and blanket, but was comfy enough to get a light nap.

But at some point, I woke myself up snoring, so I got down to go find and use the restroom, and then read when I returned.  Would also spend a few moments in the hallway each time I would use the restroom to stretch legs and get a photo if anything good was outside.

Crossing a river on the train as we got closer to Dong Hoi.

Later in the trip the staff came through the hallway selling food, but nothing I wanted to buy.  The father bought 2 bottles of water and then handed one of them to me!  The other he sat on the table and they never did use it.

As we neared the 6 hours mark, I started to track our progress on Google Maps with the GPS.  That let me know when we were about to enter the main area of town so I could get my shoes on and other things put away so I could be ready to get off the train when we arrived.

As we were pulling into the station, I grabbed my bags and moved down the hallway and ended up being the first person off the train after we stopped and the doors were opened.

I left the platform and walked through the station to get outside.  I then walked across the parking/street area to a nearby hotel that I wanted to check first for a room.

They thankfully had a room for the next 3 nights, but was a bit of a challenge to book it.  The adults did not speak any English, but some younger kids there were able to help me communicate, but was still some confusion as the kid kept thinking I wanted 2 nights instead of 3.  I finally typed in my request to Google Translate and showed it to the lady at the counter and she nodded that was what she had.

Nhà Nghỉ Lan Hương Hotel (taken 2 days later in daylight)

The lady took me up to the room and showed me a few things and then put the 3 bottles of water she had grabbed on the table.  Guess I get 1 bottle for each night.

A basic room, nothing fancy, but was clean. It had a full-size bed, small table and chair, TV on the wall, AC unit on the wall, and nice big fan on the wall.  The bathroom had a sink, shower head and toilet. There was a widow looking up the road as well.

She then had me follow her out to grab a big coat rack I could use to hang stuff on from a balcony off the elevator lobby.  Not sure why they store them out there, but was nice to have in the room.

The room was only $10 a night. The bed was a bit hard but I can live with that.

The room for 3 nights.

I was on the 4th floor, but there was an elevator, so not a huge issue.

The noise was a bit high at times when the trains arrived and people were coming and going, but really did not bother me and not enough to wake me up or anything.

I sorted the bags some to get out what I needed to use the next few days, put a few things on the charger and then I walked over a few blocks to find the motorbike rental place I was going to use.

I finally found it in the lower level of a house in what was a residential area, but no one was around. They were supposed to still be open, and it was only 6:00pm.

I decided I would just stop by in the morning as I was not going to rent anything tonight anyway as I had  nowhere to go and would just be a waste of the day’s rental fee.

I walked up the street a bit to check out what shops were in the area, mainly to see if I could find a place to buy drinks or snacks, and also what kind of restaurants were around or anything else that might interest me.

I did find a Vinmart, so drinks and snacks were easy, but most of the restaurants were local cuisine only and most were dives that did not look that good to me. They could be a challenge to order food from as I had no clue what the foods I had been eating the last two weeks were even called and the menu's I saw had no English or descriptions, and very few had any photos either.

I stopped at the Vinmart and bought some drinks and some chips to snack on, plus some candy bars for breakfast, then returned to the room to put it away.

I finished the bag of chips I had bought in Hoi An, drank one of the drinks, and then ate one of the new bags of chips and finished the water from the train.

I then read for a bit, but was exhausted, not that hungry, and decided I would just skip going out for dinner and go to bed.

I will figure tomorrows activities out in the morning!

Goodnight.