November 11,

Today, we move on. 🙁

We were up at 0630. Showered and packed. Had our Javas and then to breakfast. We ate same things, being creatures of habit. But we changed up our drinks. I had a banana milkshake and Jeff had a mixed fruit shake. They gave us a one more shake – we split it with a fruit bowl of white dragon fruit, banana, and passion fruit.

Jeff paid our “tab” which included the scooter rental for yesterday, 4.4 kg (9.7#) of laundry and our room for four nights. Grand total was 2,500,000 Dong ($99).

At 0910, we loaded into a Grab taxi to the train station. The train was late, arriving at 1010. All aboard and we set out around 1020 – so it starts out 16 minutes late. We have no other agenda today so it's okay. We are in a seat compartment, but we are facing the wrong way. We see the terrain as we have passed through it. It is just different.

As we chug down the tracks we pass out of town and the tracks turn toward the coast. We see the ocean & some beaches with small coastal towns on one side of windows; then waterfalls and mountainous country side scenes out the other side of windows. We cross over small spanning bridges. Our train is long enough and there is enough curving in the tracks at times we can see the back end travel over them. This is always cool and fascinating to me! I blogged some and Jeff looked out the windows more than me. We also seemed to have done more tunnels on this stretch than prior. We ate the last bit of a chocolate bar as a snack.

We arrived around 1320; disembarked the train; and met our arranged driver. We were in the car by 1331. We are driven through Da Nang and to Hoi An. This city area is definitely larger. As I remember… Da Nang is the third largest city in Vietnam. At our place, Truc Huy Tranquil Villa, by 1420. The outside seems like a big house with the front area being a courtyard as such. We are greeted by the reception man. He is outgoing and pleasant. He checked us in and had us sit for a welcoming plate of watermelon and cup of tea… the watermelon was great, the tea awful. He is busy, dealing with other customers some leaving and one wanting a scooter rental. When we finished and he had some stuff sorted, he showed us our room. It will work nicely. We have a couple of chairs and small table. He brought us a refrigerator and kettle, as we were supposed to have one. The bathroom is great and a dry one – it has been a while for this! We are here for two weeks and are looking forward to slowing down more. Our room has a balcony that overlooks a small pool area with lots of shade trees. We unloaded and went back down he said he can lunch or dinner. So we asked for lunch. He gave us a menu. We ordered and he had to go get it! We wonder where – it was close by as he was not gone long. Anyway, I had Mi Quang – Quang Noodles, which had yellow and white rice flour noodles topped with pork slices, a shrimp, and a quail egg with herbs/greens in an great sauce and topped with a grilled rice paper. Jeff had the Cao Lau – Pork Rice Noodles, which had white rice noodles with slices of pork, and pork cracklings, bean sprouts, and herbs/greens with a small amount of stock. They sound similar but are very different tasting. Both were good.

Finished we went back up to our room and I blogged some, Jeff read. Around supper time I hit a break point and we went out. We walked to old town Hoi An and just explored. We meandered along a canal and saw a great lit up bridge crossing it; and had many dogs warn us we were not on a tourist path (lol). I slipped on a sidewalk area and did a small scrape on my forearm. Clutzy, but okay!

We made it to the river walk area and where all the tourists are. We explored here and found a local guy grilling some different meats on sticks. We got a pork sausage, a thin sliced chicken stick, and grilled leaf spring rolls – like we made in our cooking class. We sat at a low table and little people chairs and were asked what we wanted to drink. Jeff had a Tiger beer and I had a Sprite. Then we were served what we had ordered on a plate with sliced cucumber, a scoop of pickled veggies – Kimchi-like, and a sauce. It was great. We are right by lit up boats that will give you a river boat ride, and the other side is the rest of the vendors of the market. When we finished our platter/plate we wanted another couple of sticks of meat. Then we really finished and it was good timing as it started spitting a tiny bit. So Jeff paid the meat guy and the drink lady (130,000 Dong total – which was $5.13). We left and walked to a convenience store for a few items we needed. Just as we started to leave here, it started lightly raining. So Jeff secured a Grab and we went back to our place. I finished the blog and bed by 2200.