Nha Trang

Time to move on again.  We left Hoi An to go back up to Da Nang as Hoi An has no railway station.  We were booked on the ten o'clock overnight train to Nha Trang but by well past midnight, there was still no sign of the train.  In some respects, this was rather nice as we got to see the fireworks display for TET at midnight but when another hour passed, it started to get a bit much.

It finally arrived about one thirty but proved to be the worst train to date.  It looked as though they'd dug it out of mothballs for the occasion and it hadn't been cleaned in the last couple of decades.  As there are six of us travelling and the sleeper carriages only sleep four, we've taken turns to share with strangers.  This time was our turn but no one appeared so we had the cabin to ourselves, such that it was.  We had also shared on the first train and were fortunate to have two nice young Australian girls, whereas Myra and Paraic got stuck with a crying baby when it was their turn and Jason and Karen got a really unfriendly French couple on theirs.  The joys of travelling on a meager budget.

Nha Trang is a very popular resort town as it has some long beaches.  I guess we're terribly spoiled as we felt they weren't anything to write home about at all.  We'd stopped in Nha Trang primarily to break the journey on some of the long stretches and thought we'd like to take a side trip inland to Da Lat which was easy access from there. Otherwise, with everything closed for TET, there was nothing really worth stopping for in our minds so once we could organise a bus to Da Lat, we set off again.  A four hour trip back into the hills.