We ticked over the barrier to Christmas approximately an hour or so out of Hanoi. For a long while prior to making our ride south I had thought we’d be walking the Hanoi streets endlessly in search of accommodation rather than taking the re-unified A-train south to Hoi An. With great skill and fortune however Frichot and I had managed to make the Hanoi terminal and even found our way to the train. We had acquired a four berth cabin which we shared with a couple from Singapore and were ready to make out way.
Hanoi Railway Station - We made it, just!
The cabin was fairly basic, a mid size mattress, sheet, cover and pillow. Not the most comfortable bedding that you’d ever come across but enough to get you through the night. What provided more of a hassle was the driver’s inability to keep any sort of constant speed, it was speed up, brake, speed up and brake. Unfortunately that kept most of the occupants of cabin 9B in that hazy state of elucidation, and yes, if you think it’s a contradiction in terms then that’s because it’s meant to be.
All aboard - Frichot on the reunifcation ride
Sunrise on Christmas morning brought with it endless views of rice fields, scattered villages and the odd medium sized town. At about 10:30 or so we stopped in Hue, located in central Vietnam (about 650kms from Hanoi and 1100kms from Saigon). It was the formal Imperial capital of Vietnam and is now recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its great sprawling complex of temples, pavilions, moats, gates and walls. Unfortunately it wasn’t in our plan to have a look around the place, so I guess this just gives me another reason to make a return to Vietnam someday in the near future.
About 30 mins out of Hue we encountered some of the most spectacular scenery of the journey thus far (well, that we were able to see in any case). As the train snaked it’s way along the coast line the surrounds got more and more mountainous, with much of the coastline having these hills/mountains just drop straight into the sea. A lot of the journey from this point down to Da Nang had similarities with the Great Ocean Rd drive, particularly the area past Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles. Really, just very picturesque, scenic and in some parts quite dramatic. It felt as though the closer we got to Da Nang the more impressive the scenery was.
View heading south, 15 mins out of Hue
Hue to Da Nang
Hue to Da Nang
Hue to Da Nang
A little over 13hours after pulling out of Hanoi the night before we arrived in Da Nang, 1:02pm on the scoreboard, a whole two mins behind the scheduled time. Who says these Communists aren’t efficient and effective? In fact I’d hazard a guess and say that my watch was the one being a little inconsistent and running ahead of time. Frichot and I jumped off the train and into the waiting arms of friendly Da Nang taxi driver who was more than happy to driver us around to get some cash exchanged and then took us the 40kms down south to Hoi An.
So the question, why Hoi An? Well, the answer goes a little something like this. A few years back whilst travelling in this same with Jason we had made a day trip down to Hoi An to check out the town and witness what all the hype was about regarding ‘tailor made’ clothing and all it’s related possibilities. What we found, aside from a town literally full of tailors was a quaint, charming place that was also a hub for various forms of arts, crafts, restaurants and bars etc. It was after that day that I’d decided that in the next few years I’d come back and spend several days here just exploring the town and getting some clothes made. So here I was, keeping the promise that I’d made to myself nearly two years ago to the day.
Our place of residence in Hoi An was to be the Nhi Nhi hotel, a small place located about 800mtrs or so from the famous Japanese bridge, which can be regarded as being the western entrance to the centre of the town. After settling into our new residence and chilling out for a couple of hours we walked into town to have a bit of a look around. Jet ‘obviously’ jumped at the opportunity to deck out his wardrobe for the upcoming season and threw himself into a Hanoi t-shirt frenzy, admittedly there were a few cool purchases that he made. After walking around for a bit longer we settled in to have dinner at a place called the Secret Garden, a place where the name is very much inline with actual difficulty related to finding the place. I’d sighted this as a possible dining ‘experience’ via the font of all travel knowledge, TripAdvisor, but when we asked the locals what the deal was with this place and where it was, nobody seemed to know. It was only a freakish sighting of an errant Secret Garden sign on Le Loi lane, which runs off Le Loi street, that pointed the way home for us.
Aesthetically this place was really nice, a quaint, lush and well maintained garden, hidden away and well back from the main streets of Hoi An. It was quiet and quite serene in part, although the food and service were no match for the surrounds. That’s not to say that it was bad, just that it could only be considered to be average in relation to both the price paid and the value for money that you received in many other places in Hoi An – which we were also about to discover.
Hoi An at dusk
After dinner we headed to a bar that had caught our attention whilst walking along Le Loi street, The Now and Then Bar. What caught my attention was a huge painting of Bono in a Superman costume, lol, it was freakin’ awesome! So much so that I had to ask how much the painting was to buy, just out of personal interest, the price came back as $2000USD. I considered for a few seconds but yeah, where exactly was I going to put the damn thing? In any case Frichot and I settled in nicely to the Now & Then, taking down many a solid cocktail, something in the five to six ballpark, until the warm cheery feeling took over and we realised that if we kept going at this pace then we’d be hitting the Hoi An canvass quite early in the piece.
'SupeBono' at the Now & Then Bar - Hoi An - it was only $2000USD...I thought about it!
Back at the Nhi Nhi, feeling a little refreshed and reborn after a couple of drinks, we decided that for tonight we were wanting to ‘own’ this town Karaoke style. There appeared to be quite a few places in the local area that were willing to provide an ‘authentic’ Karaoke experience, which unfortunately on closer inspection and investigation also meant that you would have to get your groove on in Vietnamese. Not knowing the language and not really ‘feelin’ the Vietnamese grooves meant that we were kicked out of most of the Karaoke bars in town, like the true Aussie outcasts that we were. Walking into town and letting our intuition guide, we crossed over the canal relatively close to the Japanese bridge….and then we heard it….the God awful sound of some poor tortured Vietnamese soul belting out a home grown classic for all the town to hear. We stood for a few seconds and tried to get our head around whether this was some type of sanctioned public display of humiliation that was required as form of punishment in accordance to Hoi An customer and law, or, if maybe…maybe…this was a party gone wrong and perhaps a little wild. In those moments every fibre of my being said ‘run’, but Frichot, giving the dulcet sounds of this poor pauper more respect than it deserved, prompted me to walk up the street 50mtrs in order to check out where the carnage was coming from. So we did.
Standing in the street in front of the newly found Karaoke Gone Wrong destination I was a bit apprehensive. Basically all it was a large shopfront that had been emptied but that now was filled with slightly tanked Vietnamese, having a bit of a buffet deal and trying to get their voices to cope with the Kenny Loggins classic, Highway to the Danger Zone…but as always, Frichot, with his faux MJ moves and his flowing golden hair, attracted all the attention and got us the golden pass into this Karaoke madness. It was only later in the evening that we discovered that this was a staff Christmas party that we had bombed, but really, once they started handing out free beers then who were we to be asking the cutting questions. Once ‘Hey Jude’ made its way onto the play list Frichot and I were up and completely in bastardisation mode. Well, perhaps it wasn’t that bad, and as they say, admitting your Karaoke flaws is kind of like admitting that you have an ugly baby – you can see it, it’s there but it hurts to be so honest. Never the less, as we were later to find out, it was actually our strained notes and our familiar English voices that managed to drag in our very cool and attractive Afrikaan friends – who said that karaoke doesn’t work for you?
Frichot - Christmas Karaoke - Hoi An
Christmas Karaoke with our new friends - Hoi An
After some more musical abuse and me trying to land a solid version of Living on a Prayer (it was awesome Check out the link HERE - Elisher kills Bon Jovi), plus another few beers, we landed out on the street, myself, Jet, Lilli, Judith, Jolene and some random French guy (who knows where he came from?), but there we had it, a classic b-ball game of three on three – ‘game on boys, there’s no rules now’.
Surprisingly we found the Now and Then bar still open so that’s where we were able to take up residence for the many hours of drinking that were about to land on our doorstep. We all chatted away happily and it was good fun, kind of strange how each of us paired up but chatting with Lilli was pretty cool and her accent was dynamite…what can you do, I have a thing for accents that aren’t Australian! Hours later, even though my memory towards the end of the night is a little skewed, I know that we ended pulling up stumps at the bar at around 3am, which aligned with closing. In any case Mr Frichot and I said our goodbyes and wondered back to the Nhi Nhi where of course we had to wake the night staff camped at the door to let us in…much like Hanoi really, different town but the same result!
