Off to Saigon

The next morning, as we checked out, awaiting our car to Da Nang train station, and saddened that the quick turnaround did not allow for multiple extra fittings with Em Ma, a motorbike zipped up at the last minute to deliver our clothes. We said farewell to a beautiful, relaxing, fulfilling (and filling) week in Hoi An. As we write, we are sitting on our berth, alone in our cabin on the train to Saigon. All told, it will be near 16 hours (and 4:30am) when we arrive. The first leg of our trip from Da Nang to Nha Trang has been uneventful, besides the less-than-spotless mattresses and blankets and the frequent, if hilarious, interruptions of the grinning beverage/snack cart woman. Still so early in the trip, we undoubtedly have many unknown adventures still ahead of us and hope they are as innocuous as those on our last overnight train….

Update: We made it all the way to Quang Ngai (halfway between Da Nang and Nha Trang ~ 5 hours) without company in our berth and happily updating a week’s “back blog” (ha) and watching a rainstorm in the countryside as we passed. Making mental note to remember to bring a pack of playing cards on all future vacations. The train stopped in Quang Ngai and we abruptly had cabinmates. The first opened the door and stopped to give us the full once over before entering. A non-descript gentleman in his late 40s with nothing but an attaché case he didn’t initially respond to Katie’s cheerful, “hi!”. After a painstaking 45 seconds or so he apparently found us innocuous enough and entered but not before yelling something we assume to the effect of, “Hey, look who’s in my cabin…” down the hallway because seconds later there were 3-5 additional curious faces of similar businessmen peering in at us. The onlookers dispersed with the arrival of our second cabinmate, another businessman, perhaps a bit younger who gave us a polite nod and then climbed up to his bunk and laid down.

Whether they didn’t speak English or that they failed to find novelty in the young western travelers like many of their compatriots, or both, we don’t know. But, as we waited for some type of interaction, we soon realized it was not to be. The closest thing was after a little tickle in her nose, Katie sneezed, the man on the top bunk sat up, reached for his bag and pulled out and adorned a surgical mask for the remainder of the trip. Katie and Adam exchanged eye-contact but not a word, finding it hilarious that he was as concerned about catching something from us,as we were from him.

The remaining few hours awake were spent with Adam reading, and Katie fighting motion sickness while trying to write wedding thank you notes and then subsequently dozing in and out for the remaining 8+ hours until we reached Saigon just before dawn. We dropped our luggage at the luxury Rex Hotel in the Dong Khoi District at the center of District 1 and wandered off into the waking city.

We attended the 0530 Catholic mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral across from the Central Post Office. The mass, all in Vietnamese, was well-attended and luckily the sprawling pink and white cathedral offered plenty for us to look at when we couldn’t guess which part of the liturgy we were listening to. We wandered past the Reunification Palace where an NVA tank (now parked out front) famously crashed through the gates symbolizing the fall of Saigon in 1975. We then past the Opera House where two men were setting up chairs and speakers for a morning concert on the steps. We lingered in a coffee shop trying to decipher a Vietnamese version of GQ and then reading the extremely interesting English version of the Vietnam Financial Review before heading to Pho 24 for breakfast. Finally, at 10AM we were allowed to check in at our hotel where we found, yet again, we had been upgraded. (woo!) Now, to rinse the train grime away and get ready to explore Vietnam’s biggest city….