Through Danang to Hoi An

Getting to Hoi An was relatively easy with the sleeping traing in a very comfortable cabin. I must admit that the train wasn't cheap as for Vietnamese standards but the service quality was better than at home. What surprised me was that they have many different types of cabins, not just second class and first class (and business eventually) like at home, but more. With different finish, different fitting, with flower pots, without flower pots.. amazing! So it was actually a good decision to splash out and take this train. The only small obstacle was that the traing wasn't going to Hoi An directly, but to Danang, which is the biggest city in the area less then an hour drive.

On the night train from Nha Trang to Danang. Luckily only two seats were occupied - what a comfort!

Morning window view

Being adventures so far it didn't bother me so much. Especially that I found a great companion on the way and now there were the two of us going in the same direction. Anyway we figured that there must be a way of getting from Danang to Hoi An, with Hoi An being such a major tourist spot. And there was a way, but for tourist and not for backpackers. Arriving at Danang train station there were bunch of private minibuses and motorbikes, and taxis, whatever you prefer but none of them wanted to settle for my price, which was close enough to the price I knew we would pay for public transportation. It made me a bit mad, how obscene the local guys were with trying to overcharge so off we went in looking for the bus station. There must be a bus station close to the train station right?

Well it was not so straight forward as I was thinking :)
Looking at the little map in our guide book it was a bit of a walk, like 2KM. We found an Internet place to double check and it was saying the same. Trying to get any sort of directions from the locals was virtually impossible, even with the phrase book. No one seemed to have any English.

On top of that it was a Sunday so all the western service companies were closed, like banks etc. so we could not ask. Seems like the part of Danang we were in was not touched by any tourist services, no hotels, no travel agencies, nothing. And so we were walking in the direction of a bus station, at least we hoped so. We passed a school, a park, a church, a market, honda dealership...and kept walking..The bus station was nowhere to be seen, no buses around either.



On the train - window view



So we took a turn and decided to find a place to ask for more directions, there was a local coffee place but our efforts of trying to clarify that we want to take a bus to Hoi An were useless. The staff seemed to be brain washed, or brainless I should say :) Finally when they got the intentions they had no clue on the directions for us.. It started to rain but we came back on a main street and kept walking. Finally we found one hotel opened and tried there. Same story, no English, no clue what we were at. And then I don't know exactly how, but going out of this hotel there was a bus stopping in a distance and somehow we set off to catch it. Running like crazy with the big backpacks, not 100% sure if we are running for the right bus yet, we got in eventually and luckily it was the right bus. A little miracle!

The bus took us back in the direction of the train station, stopped one or two times near the station (but not a bus stops to be clear, they rarely stop at bus stops. You just tell them where you want to get out.), and was slowly filling with all sorts of people. People with bags, funny hats, children coming back from school..some more childern...and a couple of white people. So this assured as that it must be the right direction as some other tourists are following it, not only we. We were squeezed like sardines sitting on top of each other virtually but at least we were going in the right direction on this crazy bus!