The train ride from Danang to Nha Trang wasn’t as nice as our train from Hanoi to Hue. This was partially due to the fact that the train was older and dirtier, but also because a man in our berth kept waking up, unlocking the door and disappearing for a half hour (leaving the door open the whole time).
We haven’t come across any theft issues yet, but I have been warned it happens on these overnight trains…so I kept waking up, finding the door open and then shutting it while the man was gone. This also required that I open the door when he returned because it automatically locked him out. This charade continued most of the night and contributed to a pretty restless sleep for me.
When I finally awoke for good I was amazed at the scenery outside my window. We’d traveled approximately 800 miles from Hanoi to Nha Tran and the landscape had changed dramatically. Thick deciduous trees gave away to sparser plains, and, on the eastern side of the train, breath-taking views of the South China Sea.
One of the many reasons I love traveling via train is that it cuts through the landscape and gives you a look at the countryside without the commercialized elements (i.e. there are no billboards, gas stations, snack shops along side the railroad as there are on the side of highways, its just the railroad and the country).
Anyways, the train crept along the perimeter of the sea. Sometimes the tracks were built upon giant boulders lining the sea and the train was no more than thirty yards away from the water. As the train approached Nha Tran there were intervals of pitch blackness (as the train passed through the tunnels that had been bored through the limestone) and resplendent brightness as we were once again introduced to the sun and water of the seemingly tropical environment.
Our train was supposed to arrive at 7:42 but given the two-hour delay the night before we weren’t sure when it was arriving. It was a bit of a guessing came and Stephen and I had our bags packed and ready to jump out of the train when we got to Nha Tran.
The loud speaker started blaring. Stephen tapped my bunk.
‘The lady is telling me this is Nha Trang.’
We shared a cab with a Californian and an Argentian to our hotel. The hotel itself is located right next to the beach, but it’s much different than the hotels we’ve been staying in. We’re used to mom & pop operations but this hotel (read: resort hotel) has a palpable American feel to it. Stephen and I both noticed that things have gotten more westernized the further south we travel.
We ate lunch and then walked down to the beach. The turquoise waters we’d heard about were nowhere to be found…instead we saw brown water. There were only five people along the entire stretch of the beach. (I later read that the water turns brown during heavy rains when runoff from the rivers floods the sea with silt).
Afterwards we got iced coffee at a café and then walked to the train station to purchase tickets for the final leg of the journey from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh.
So…there are three SE trains that go from Nha Trang to HCMC. SE1, SE3 and SE5. They left around the same time (~10:00 at night) but SE1 got into HCMC at 4:10 (not ideal), SE3 got into HCMC at 5:00 and SE5 got into HCMC at 4:40. We didn’t want to be in HCMC at 4:00 in the morning…probably not the safest thing in the world. For that reason the SE3 train made the most sense.
The lady at the desk told us there were no more soft sleeper seats left in any of the trains. We would either have to stay in a hard sleeper (6 people per room, sleeping on basically slabs of wood) or ride with the general population in regular seats. Eek…neither was a good option. We told her we needed to rethink our strategy…we considered everything from flying to HCMC, to paying a driver to bring us there, to taking a bus.
When we went back to the window the woman told us there was one other option, a local train, SNT1 that was three hours slower but had soft sleepers. It left at 10:00 at night and arrived the next day at 8:00 AM. Perfect!
We booked the trip…thank god for that.
The rest of the day we took it easy…we’ve both been traveling for such a long time and it’s catching up with us.
Nha Tran is known as a party or resort town so we decided to drag ourselves out at night. As we walked to the bar section we were propositioned by, quite literally, ever single motorcycle driver. ‘Boom boom?’ ‘Marijuana?’ ‘I got best girl for you. Boom boom long time.’ It was ridiculous and annoying. I started getting pretty cagey with them towards the end.
My friend told me Nha Trang attracts a lot of ‘trash with cash’ from Europe and her assessment definitely rang true was we walked through the streets at night.
‘Nha Trang is the Las Vegas of Vietnam.’ I said to Stephen as we walked into one of the bars.
At the bar we walked into, the bartender, who told us her name was ‘Ugly,’ challenged me to a game of connect four. She said if I won she would buy us shots, but if I lost I would have to pay for the shots myself. I took her up on her offer and, much to her surprise, beat her[1]! She gave us two shots and the night took off from there.
We spent a few hours at the bar, we met some South Africans, a guy from England, a few Ozzies… The bar closed at 12:00 and the whole crew of us decided to fo the Surfing Club together (the ‘Surfing Club’ is the pre-eminent night club in Nha Trang). As we walked through the streets Ugly, who had become quite good friends with the chap from England (more on that later), made us promise that we wouldn’t leave the surfing club without letting her know. Nha Trang, and this club specifically, are VERY notorious for chloroformed drinks and mugged tourists (as Stephen would regrettably find out later, he’s okay, read on).
When we were walking in Stephen turned to me. ‘I don’t think Ugly is a very good person.’
‘Did you just realize that?’ I chuckled. ‘I didn’t trust from the first moment I saw her.’
‘I know, but I think she wants us to tell her when we leave so she can set us up.’
‘That’s why we wont tell her when we leave.’
The club was nice. The Australians, the English guy and the South Africans and Stephen and I hung out outside. Regrettably Ugly was there too and by this time had an entire harem of girls she wanted to introduce us to.
‘Here you like this one.’ She said looking at me. ‘Her name Cherry.’
‘Ugly’ I smiled at her and leaned in. ‘You’re a pimp, aren’t you.’
‘Yes, what you think I am?’
‘Just making sure.’ I turned to Cherry. ‘You are pretty, but I’m sorry I’m not interested.’
I sat at the table with the rest of the crew and Cherry sat next to me. She looked as though she was offended. For a moment I was panic stricken, thinking maybe I’d read the situation incorrectly and insinuated a regular girl was a prostitute.
I turned to her. ‘You are…umm.’
‘What?’
Hmm…how to phrase this. ‘What do you do for a living?’
She cocked her head. ‘What you think?’
‘Gotcha.’ I said. ‘How long have you done it for.’
‘Five years.’ She shrugged, ‘But its okay, it gives me money to do what I want to do.’
Poor girl.
I excused myself from the table and walked through the dance floor. I was harassed by a dozen girls, all prostitutes, when I decided it was time to leave.
‘Why do you want to leave?’ Stephen asked.
‘Because I haven’t seen a girl that’s not a prostitute for two hours.’
He nodded. He decided to stay because he’d become pretty decent friends with the South Africans.
I took a cab home and passed out. Stephen came home later, and decided to go for a walk with his South African friends when the whole of them were harassed by three guys. Apparently Stephen was walking by the beach and the thugs were back a few hundred yards by the street. Stephen ignored them until a fist sized rock thudded in the sand next to him.
He walked in the direction of our hotel (the thugs were between Stephen and our hotel) and they demanded money. Stephen ignored them and when he walked past they threw another fist sized rock into his back.
He turned around and gave them 50,000 dong ($2.5) but they wouldn’t stop following him.
Finally he got to the hotel and the concierge didn’t want to let him in because he thought Stephen was just trying to evade the thugs, and not because Stephen had a room there.
Eventually they let him in. Stephen is okay…must have been a glancing blow. Quite an exciting end to the night.
Question begs to be asked....Why would you be in a bar known for chloroformed drinks?
ReplyDeleteSecondly, next time drag Stephen home with you.
But then again, it's your mother making the comment.
Be safe and why not check out some churches along the way.