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After enjoying Nha Trang so much, I was a little sad to be leaving. Having to take an overnight train at 2am was not helping, especially after our recent traumatic train adventure.
We sat waiting in an empty train station watching the rats scurry along in the room opposite us. The only other people in the waiting room were an Asian couple who were sleeping. I checked to see if we could access the platform but the gate was securely locked. I wasn't sure if someone would come closer to the time to unlock it but as the time neared it was looking doubtful. Luckily the sleeping man awoke and checked his watch; he also realised that we may miss our train if we couldn't access the platform. He promptly started looking for alternative routes. I assumed he knew more than me and when he returned to lure his wife away we proceeded to follow.
We reached the platform with minutes to spare as soon a distant light emerged from the darkness as the train approached, slowly grinding to a stop as it reached the platform. We boarded the train and frantically searched for our cabin, dragging our heavy bags through the narrow doorways. Relieved to have made it this far we were stumped as to what to do about the girl who we had discovered asleep in Sam's bed. I remember thinking should I move her? Perhaps we should sleep somewhere else? Am I even in the right carriage or the right train for that matter? Fortunately the steward could see we had a problem and after checking our ticket and location removed the girl who (it turns out) was just too lazy to climb to her (inferior) top bunk and had settled for our convenient bottom bunk instead!
The carriage was a six birth sleeper and all its occupants were fast asleep, even the girl who was moved had just as quickly passed out again, leaving Sam and I to navigate in total darkness, stow our bags and get ready for bed with our every move creating noise that sounded amplified in the tiny room.
It took a while to get into bed but once we had achieved this feat we could relax. The experience was surprisingly really enjoyable; the droning of the train's engine filled the cabin as I lay back listening to the train skate across its tracks. The beds were comfortable and cleaner than expected and offered a genuine opportunity to sleep.
When we awoke the carriage was empty, I briefly remember hearing some movement earlier but had clearly slept through every one disembarking from the train. Fantastic; a whole carriage to ourselves, we sat up at the table, folded back the beds above us and had some breakfast and some instant coffee that we had brought along with us. It was now daylight so I pulled back the curtains to let the light in. In doing so I had uncovered a window to a world that was vastly different to the one we had left 10 hours previously. The rain was falling from a bright yet moody sky as gusts of wind swept across the scenery; it was evident that something had happened here. The trees lay flat ripped from their roots one after another and the land was reduced to islands surrounded by water for miles and miles.
Finally, we made it to Hoi An and managed to get a shared mini bus within five minutes of arriving! During our transfer the driver explained that there had been an almighty typhoon the day before and that it had caused all the devastation. I sat looking out the window at the piles of foliage and broken branches that littered the streets. "Hoa Binh" shouted the driver. This was our stop and the first on route. Looking out the window of the mini bus you could see the sign of the hotel on its side; the premises looked rough but we grabbed our bags and headed to reception.
We were shown to our room what was a spacious twin with two double beds and a balcony. After a quick demonstration of the air con system which seems unnecessary as it really has only one button that's noteworthy, that being the ON button, we were left to our own devices. I quickly made my way out to the balcony to 'admire' the view. The street was a hive of activity, full of busy people trying to clear the debris from the roads and paths and restore their shop fronts to a respectable state. It was then that I saw our buddies from Bangkok who just so happened to be staying at the same place as us. We met in the lobby and quickly made plans to meet for dinner later that night at a place they recommended (Café 43).
We walked in near darkness to Café 43, the streetlights out due to the power cuts but a generator was lighting up the quaint little restaurant which in fact appeared to be a family home that had been transformed. The food was being cooked in their family kitchen and the bathroom that customers used was their actual bathroom but the family welcome was so homely and the food was great. And the best thing that set this place aside from anywhere else was the 8p glasses of beer!
The following morning we decided to get up and go exploring around the main town which to be honest was not that eventful, just tailors upon tailors which would be great if we didn't have a rucksack with limited space. If we could have we would have bought so many things. There were lovely wood carvings, ornate lanterns and such, which would have been great for the house, perhaps we'll make another trip on our way back to home?
After our thrilling tour around the town we decided to visit the beach and hired some push bikes to make the journey at a cost of $1 each, bargain! So we set out on our 20 minute cycle ride to the beach which was now looking a bit grim as the weather was starting to turn. Thankfully we continued and were rewarded with…a bland dirty beach and nothing else. Not quite what we had hoped for. We were directed forcefully to a bike park to store our bikes. We spent a grand total of five minutes on the beach before deciding to leave. Returning back to the bike park we were informed there would be a hefty charge for the bike spaces we had used but using their own tactics against them I told them I didn't understand, handed them a couple of dong and before they could argue we were gone, continuing our journey back to the hotel in the rain.
Later that night we arranged to meet with Lucas, a fellow traveller we had met in Saigon. Due to the great experience the previous evening with Peter and Ali we returned to Café 43 to show off the 8p beer. We quickly learned that Lucas didn't actually drink alcohol but he joined in with little prompting and soon we had a racked up a beer tab of 11 beers, the grand cost being under £1. Lucas had hired a moped from his hostel which he had brought with him to the restaurant. Being a gentle man he offered us a lift back the Vietnamese way. In Vietnam a two seated moped is a family vehicle and is used frequently to transport everything including a whole family of 4, the odd cow and many chickens. Following suit, the three of us crammed on to the tiny bike. With Lucas in the driving seat, me on the back and Sam sandwiched in between we rode off into the night followed by the laughter from the restaurant owner who was watching.
In the end Hoi An turned out to be great; not because of its terrible beach, extortionate bike parking or the devastation from Typhoon Nari but because of the amazing company that we had. We were so lucky to have been joined by some of our good friends that we met along the way; sometimes people really can make the place.
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