November 30,

At 0700 I awoke – Jeff had been up since 0500. We watched the highlights of the Chiefs pitiful game. It counts as a win for them – but they did not win, rather the Raiders lost. We had our Javas to put a better light on the day. Today is moving or transition day.

At 0900, we went down to breakfast. I had a sunny side up egg and cheese sandwich; some slaw salad; fruit; and cucumber. Jeff had a pork rib soup with baguette; fruit; and more baguette with butter and jelly. Then we went back to our room and packed up and readied.

We arrived at 1128 at the train station for 1129 train! (This was My bad!!) Thankfully, the train was delayed until 1200, supposedly. At 1220, the train arrived, off going passengers unloaded and we boarded at 1225. At 1235, the train left – this is actually a pretty quick turn around. To our surprise the train backed out of the station, or rather had changed its engines and we were again facing the wrong way! But our seat position was better: we have a table in front of us; no seat in front of us coming into our space; and more leg room for Jeff. The railroad crew immediately started they process of selling food stuff – up and down the aisleway in their sing-song announcing. We bought Banh Mi Que, which is like a breadstick thin, X2 for 30,000 Dong ($1.18). Then we finished our granola. Lunch done we watch the terrain and the town pass. It amazes me how close houses can be to the train tracks, as in like ten feet without a fence or barrier!!! At 1255. we crossed the Song Cam Le and/or Song Cau Do – one river, two names… on Google anyway. Now we leave Da Nang behind. We pass by little villages, flooded paddies and fields. I can see flooding rice paddies, but the fields? Is it intentional or mother nature? Umm 🤔, questions ❓ We have crossed a least three more rivers in a short time. And we saw a lot of water buffalo, as well as a few cows. We pass through more villages and stop at a few stations, cross a lot more rivers, and at one point we go a bit further inland due to a small stretch of coastal mountains. I seem to remember only two tunnels.

Just after 1730, we saw a ribbon of pink-orange that was a remainder of the sunset. Gorgeous!  At 1800, we were pulling into our station…   Quy Nhon, and our home for the next four nights. We disembarked at 1810, only 40 minutes late. Of course, we were greeted by the taxi groups – vying for our fare. Jeff bartered with one local taxi man, and he accepted. We were on our way by 1820. Quy Nhon is pretty, all lit up at night, I just took in the views. We discussed how we don't get out enough at night to see the transformation of cities. Anyway, we arrived at FLC Sea Tower, our new home, at 1832. It is a skyscraper structure, kind of in a “Y” lay out. We met two people in the lobby. First a man. He took our passports and had them copied. He gave them back and left. The other person, a lady took us up – as in the 24th floor, up – to our room! The way to our apartment entrance is in an atrium of 30 floors!! Oh my,😮🫨 – it's a little dizzying. Then she opened the door to our place – I had a bit of a Deja vu or nostalgia feeling of our place in South Africa! We were led through an introductory spiel by her and then she left. We unloaded our stuff, and explored, starting a load of laundry. Our kitchen is lacking quite a bit of items, not even coffee mugs (but we have a kettle). Jeff complained to our hostess via WhatsApp, about lack of dishes – especially no mugs. He then went out to get us instant noodles for dinner. I heard the doorbell – our hostess brought us two mugs and said in broken English, essentially, if we need anything else, WhatsApp, & she would bring it. I gave her a thumbs up, thanked her, closed the door and started to clean the mugs as the doorbell rang again. It was Jeff returning. I am not used to a doorbell anymore. I'm finding I don't like them. Anyway, Jeff said he had seen her. We had our dinner and laid out our finished laundry (no dryers, I think I have mentioned this.). Our view out is a panorama of the sea view, one way and the city the other, with some Karaoke places – hoping they won't be open all night. In the center of a major street crossing is a lit up sculpture of a tulip – that is lovely. We finally went to bed around 2200. Looking forward to exploring Quy Nhon!