We are now getting old hands at the whole not sleeping on a sleeper train and as this one was a 14 hour job we settled in the for the night. Typical sleeper trains have 4 berths in a cabin so its always a lottery who you may get to share your evening with…..this night I think we struck gold.
It was a long haired American gentleman, quiet and in his late 50’s, who made up our cabin along with a none English speaking local. As usual we exchanged pleasantries and shared some travel stories before settling down for the night. The train did not arrive until 13:00 the next day so we had a few hours to kill once awake and we began to chat to the fellow. It turns out he was on his way to Da Nang to stay with an old girlfriend he met whilst he was stationed out here during the Vietnam war - yes a real life war vet. He came out last year to see if she was still alive and found her living in the exact village he met her at 40 years ago. He was stationed on a small hill just outside Da Nang called Marble Mountain which contained caves and is now a popular tourist attraction. Unbeknown to him at the time the VC (Viet Con) also had a base of operations dug in tunnels underneath the caves which they operated attacks from and that they had been watching them the whole time. He expressed that it was a miracle that he had not died on that mountain.
He then went on to describe how he lost 4 of his friends in a friendly fire incident with him being the only one to survive and that he had been medically evacuated home shortly after. He said that since being in Vietnam he had not had a full night sleep in 40 years due to the night terrors and that part of visiting again this time was to hopefully put to rest some of the bad memories. It was a fascinating story from someone who had obviously seen a great deal. It was also interesting that he had applied for a 3 month visa which had been granted whilst in America, however when he got to the airport he was pulled aside by immigration and downgraded to only a month with no reason given! Sadly we never found out his name (so enthralled by the story we never thought to ask) but we both hope that he has found some peace through this visit. Upon arriving in Da Nang we said our goodbyes and made our way 30km further south by taxi to Hoi An.
Hoi An is a small fishing village with a very laid back style which has become famous for its hundreds of tailors and shoe makers. Walk into any shop, pick your fabric, pick your style and within 24 hours they will make a tailored piece of clothing for you. After much deliberating Emma decided to have a dress made. Its pure silk, tailored made to fit and cost only 19 GBP. Of course its beautiful and she wished we had time to have some more items made.
Close to Hoi An is a temple site called My Son dating back to the 4th to the 9th century and advertised as a mini Vietnamese Angkor Wat. As the trip was only a half day and just an hour by bus we thought it would be a good distraction from all the shops. The site occupied a large area in one of Vietnams jungles and according to the guide we picked the right day as it was not too hot. As we stepped off the bus and began to walk into the site through the jungle the heat was incredible, the close proximity of the foliage made the heat far more intense and humid than anything we had encountered before. We both commented that we would have hated to have been here when it was really hot!
The site is fairly run down with many piles of bricks taking the place of the original 30m high towers. This is mainly due to the Americans and the VC using this area as a playground during the war. The Americans dropped many bombs in this place as there were known to be VC hiding in the nearby jungle. Due to this the site is littered with craters from the bombings and it is sad to think that the place has stood untouched for 2000 years and then practically destroyed in the last 40! None the less, it was an interesting place to see and perhaps in a ironic way was more interesting destroyed as you could really see the scars of recent history and really imagine the people having to fight and survive in these hostile jungle conditions.
Next more chilling and for the first time this trip a proper beach break in Nha Trang.
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