Monday, February 26th, train journey from Hue to Da Nang and visit to Hoi An

Today we take the train from Hue to Da Nang (duration approx. 2.5 hours). The train journey was really unusual: as usual, it started 15 minutes late. In Hue the platform is closed and everyone has to wait in the waiting room. About 10 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive, the doors were locked. As far as I can tell, there is no access to the platforms, it's just the entire station area with rail-level access 😁.
The train is perfectly fine, you have significantly more legroom than ours and the backrest can be adjusted very well, almost into a lying position. The air conditioning is running at full blast and we put on everything we have with us.
The view from the train is magnificent, I've never been so close to the sea before, about 20km/h, at least when we go up and down the pass.
From Da Nang we continue to Hoi An. On the way we pass the Marble Mountains. It's full of stonemasons, but the items are very expensive (small turtle $35).
It takes the stonemason around 2 months to create a 1m tall figure.
When we arrived in Hoi An, we visited the very turbulent and colorful market. There are numerous tailor shops where you choose the model from the catalog and the fabric from the overflowing shelves and 6 hours later the tailor-made garment is ready for collection.

Then we walk through the vegetable market and buy some fruit (cinnamon apple, mango, lychees,...). There are also lots of herbs and coconuts to buy. We also treat ourselves to a rice pancake from the street. We visit a silk shop, where we are shown the individual steps of silk production. Of course we also buy something there. The embroidered silk pictures are extraordinary - they look like a photo.

We arrive at our hotel pretty exhausted from all the impressions and the really colorful, almost garish market. We live in a small villa with a fantastic garden. In general, the entire hotel complex has a beautiful garden.

To relax, we treat ourselves to a few cocktails and play pool.