Ancient Tourism
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2008
1
6
10
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Da Nang,
Vietnam
Monday, December 1, 2008
Yesterday morning was a little early due to our need to take the train, making it hard for me to drag myself out of the comfortable beds at the Asia Hotel. Once again breakfast failed to disappoint, offering up another healthy selection of cooked foods and pastries/deserts
SE1 Arriving at Hue
. I don't know how I'll survive when I get back home if I can't have all the sweet stuff for breakfast. At least I have a chocolate advent calendar waiting for me...We were out of the hotel by about 7:50am and had to walk a short distance down the road to the nearest available taxi. From there it took a few minutes to navigate through the sea of bikes and arrive at the station, well in time for our train's scheduled departure time of 8:17am. Annoyingly access to the station platform was only available to ticketholders a few minutes prior to the train's arrival. Due to this regulation we found ourselves hanging around the waiting room and booking office for about 15 minutes before being granted access to the platform. The yard appeared to consist of 4 main roads (tracks) with the 2 closest to the station building unoccupied and the further 2 containing a southbound mixed freight train and a collection of freight wagons.
Our train, SE1 running from Hanoi to Saigon, arrived a few minutes late, pulling up on the 2nd track from the station building, hinting of a possible cross with a northbound service. The 14-car train was hauled by a modern German (Siemens) D20E locomotive, which looked a bit out of place on the metre gauge track and amongst the less than modern infrastructure
View from the Mountains
. The carriages certainly didn't follow the same standards as the air conditioning in our soft seat carriage was non-functional and many of the chairs seemed to be permanently reclined. Nevertheless the car was full and the locals didn't seem to mind. Thankfully our seats were okay so the biggest annoyance of the trip were the overhead LCD TVs (clearly a more recent addition) that had the RailTV programming's soundtrack playing over the car's PA system.It took the train 3 hours to travel the 103km between Hue Station and Da Nang Station. At first the train travelled at a respectable speed although soon enough we were climbing the coastal mountains and the train slowed to 20-30km/h. The scenery for this part of the trip was beautiful and the train is the best way to see it, as it is the only transport corridor running along the ridgeline. This part of the journey was a bit reminiscent of the Hotham Valley Railway back home as on both railways the trains snake slowly up and along scenic ridges. However, this was another region and this meant another design of boat, with the local fishermen navigating the waterways in large egg-shaped boats that are almost round.
Arrival into Da Nang brought with it a flurry of activity on the platform as the train was rewatered, we fought with the boarding passengers to disembark from the train and many platform stall-keepers harassed the passengers for customs
Marble Mountains Cave
. Sadly we had to part with our tickets to exit the station (this was a manual person-to-person transaction) before addressing the hoard of cab drivers vying for our attention. We secured a driver for the short drive down to the Green Plaza Hotel on Da Nang's redeveloping waterfront. This establishment was clearly targeted towards the American business market, featuring a large 2-storey lobby, several restaurants and bars as well as a discotheque.Once we had made ourselves at home in the roomy hotel room we headed down to the lobby, where the reception staff organised a taxi to the Marble Mountains. These large marble outcrops tower over the coastal plain, in a manner similar to the limestone karst structures seen in the north. Not surprisingly the areas surrounding these outcrops were littered with shops selling marble carvings and artefacts, all desperate for our money. Again not surprisingly Charles and I managed to ignore their charms, instead spending our money gaining access to the Buddhist temples, pagodas and caves of the most famous "mountain".
Many steps needed climbing to access these interesting spaces, which formed somewhat of an adult's adventure playground as we could explore the caves and paths at our own pace, going as far as we were willing. Once we had satisfied ourselves and worked up a bit of a sweat we headed back into town in the taxi, noting how wide and empty the roads are in Da Nang. There are also a lot of open and development spaces, featuring landscaping and underground power. This gives the city a modern vibe that compliments pushes by the local industry to brand it a party and resort holiday location.
The afternoon was finished off with a swim in the hotel's pool on the 8th floor annexe roof, overlooking the city
Charles Enters a Cave
. The pool wasn't heated but we were hot from running up and down the Marble Mountains so cooling down was part of the point. I think the staff thought we were weird because of it. Speaking of staff, there are a lot, more than guests it often seems.Dinner was had at a local eating-house a block from the hotel. We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into but when we sat down a meal consisting of rice paper bundles, greens and other vegetables was served to us. This satisfying and healthy meal came the bargain price of 150000 Dong (roughly $1.50AUD) each! Afterward I managed to convince Charles that we had hunger pains requiring the attention of some dairy goodness so we set out in search of ice cream. It seems that the locals are not the biggest fans of ice cream so the only place we could source it was at the hotel.
The rooftop bar on the 20th floor was a nice venue for our New Zealand Natural deserts. From the bar we had a good view of the airport, which is located right on the side of the city. Charles in particular enjoyed watching some planes taxi and take off. Back down in the room we veged for a bit and I worked on some of this blog update before we ended the day.
This morning was a leisurely start ahead of a large buffet breakfast at one of the hotel's restaurants. While the buffet was large and spread out, the profiteroles and crepes of our last hotel were replaced with tasty but not as exciting American foods like bacon and more fruit. Nevertheless a comprehensive buffet breakfast is always well received by these two travellers.
A Real Pagoda
First order of the day was a little free Internet usage in the "business centre" to the side of the hotel's lobby. Second order was then to secure some tickets on a tourist "open bus" service to the nearby town of Hoi An. We had tossed up taking a taxi and a public bus but the price of the taxi would've been prohibitive and a public bus trip was somewhat of gamble in regards to times, routing and onboard amenity. It goes without saying, despite our experience the day prior, that we were only considering these options because there is no train service to Hoi An.
The bus cost us roughly $4AUD each and departed at 11am. The main downside of the open bus was that it was a tourist product so there were only foreigners, missing out on any interaction with local culture and there was also a forced stop at the Marble Mountains retailers for 15 minutes. The bus was full with people and bags so we had to dig our seats at the back of the bus out from under some amazingly heavy backpacks. We finally arrived at Hoi An after an hour and it was immediately apparent that this was tourist central.
Hotels and tailors crowded every street corner, not to mention the largest hoards of annoying hawkers we have seen in Vietnam. They were literally hitting the side of the bus to grab our attention before we had even considered disembarking.
Hoi An's old town is UNESCO heritage listed and tourists are encouraged to purchase a package ticket, which also grants holders entry to a selection of old houses, trade halls, museums and a temple. We chose the house, museum, temple and trade hall that we wanted to visit based on the opinions of our Let's Go guidebook and weren't disappointed
Big Buddha
. What was most surprising was that these better choices were not very popular with the other tourists. There are tons of other tourists cramming the streets, making Hoi An a very touristy location compared to the others we have visited thus far. This detracts from the town as it's less like being in Vietnam, everything is much more commercial and is geared toward the foreign tourist.Within a few hours we were satisfied that we had seen the main sites of Hoi An and were ready to return to Da Nang. Luckily there was another open bus heading back to Da Nang (and onward to Hue) shortly so we purchased some tickets and hopped aboard. The return journey was 10000 Dong ($1AUD) more expensive but included a free bottle of water. In contrast to the outward journey this one had only 3 other passengers, all of which were also Australian, and did not include a mandatory stop at the Marble Mountains.
Back in Da Nang we satisfied our hunger, having not eaten since breakfast, with another visit to the rooftop bar for some more New Zealand Natural ice cream. This tied us over the little while until we ventured out for dinner. This was enjoyed at the same place as the night before as we had carefully budgeted to have the necessary 30000 Dong to pay for our 2 meals. We fell into the trap of having some of the accompanying tea tonight, which required extra financing. Thankfully the cafe's owner was happy to accept $1USD for the difference, keeping us safe from dish-washing duties!
I'm now typing the majority of this update as Charles and I wind down in preparation for an early rest for tomorrow's earlier start to fly down to Ho Chi Minh City. The next update will be from Vietnam's business capital in the south.
Comments
Slow Train
Three hours for 103 kms! This makes the Indian Pacific sound like a ICE. The scenery sounds nice though.