19 hours train ride and 44 degrees Celsius

Da Nang / Hoi An / Hue

Friday shortly after 10.

Four of us are ready to get in the taxi. The fifth has decided to take a separate moped taxi to the train station because she had a doctor's appointment beforehand. It turned out to be a kind of stroke of fate. Our taxi was stuck in a traffic jam. We all remained relatively calm until 10:50 a.m. The car only moved a few meters at a time, time passed, the train left at 11 and you should actually be there at least 20 minutes before departure. At 10:57 a.m. we ran the last 200 meters with our luggage and made it onto the train with only a minute delay. Finja, who took the moped taxi, had been standing in the open train door for about 15 minutes, waiting for us and feeling the stress of the conductors.

In retrospect, it was a really funny situation. This train only runs a few times a day and is a 32 hour train to Hanoi. If you miss it, the next one comes 6 hours later and unfortunately for us, that one would have been fully booked too. So we had to run. Really run. And when we arrived at the station, everyone standing there knew that we still had to get on this train because Finja just didn't want to go without us and probably word got around that weird Germans were still late xD The people around us gestured for us to get on, called out words to us in Vietnamese and the next time I looked at the clock it was 11:01 a.m. We were sweaty, completely out of breath and now had to run through 16 carriages to find our compartment. But hey, we made it on the train xD

We had a six-person sleeping cabin with bunk beds and were on our way to Da Nang.

2 day

We arrived 19 hours later and looked for a public bus that would take us to the center and the breakfast cafe. We went to the beach for a short time, but it was so warm that we quickly ordered a taxi to our accommodation in Hoi An.

Although we couldn't move into our rooms yet, we were allowed to leave our luggage in the accommodation and rented scooters for the day.

At this point we already noticed that the temperatures here were even hotter than in HCMC. There it was currently a steady 38 degrees, but in Hoi An the thermometer rose by another 2 degrees Celsius.

So we drove through the city on scooters and our first stop was the Marble Mountains, which were located in the south of Da Nang. At 40 degrees Celsius, we decided to take the elevator instead of the 156 steps. When we got to the top, there was a beautifully built temple complex with caves, Buddha statues and several viewing points.

Later we went out to eat, drove through Da Nang and looked at Laddy Buddha. A 67 meter high statue with an even more beautiful temple complex. Yes, I think more happened that day, but I can't remember everything right now... Oh yes, Johanna was attacked by monkeys, but nothing else happened.

At some point we arrived back and collapsed from exhaustion.

Day 3

Shower, get dressed, have breakfast, rent a bike and let’s go.

In retrospect, it's questionable why anyone would go on a bike ride across open fields in the approaching midday heat when it's 42 degrees Celsius today... but it was a lot of fun.

We drove through a small area called Vegetable Village and it was sooooo beautiful! Everything was full of vegetables and there were a few people working and tending the fields despite the heat. Half an hour later we arrived in the famous old town of Hoi An. So far the most beautiful city we have seen in Vietnam.

There were small alleys, lovingly decorated shops, lots of inexpensive tailors and thousands of lanterns. We looked around, bought a few souvenirs, went on coconut boats and took part in a tourist program, of course went out to eat and so on and so forth...

Day 4

The evening before, we decided to take a lantern-making course. At around 9:30 a.m. we were on our way through the heat hell on our bikes and arrived at our trusted lantern-making shop at around 10 a.m. Somehow we all had similar tastes and four of us chose the same fabric cover xD

After that, it was finally time for a day at the beach... After lunch, we finally went to the sea. I had been pestering the others about it for two days. We just lay around, drank a beer, a lemonade or a cocktail and after the first swim, the world had cooled down and was OK again.

Day 5

Getting up early is on the agenda because we are taking the bus another 90 kilometers north.

Our destination is Hue.

We wanted to see the old imperial city, where you can easily spend 2-4 hours. So to explain, the imperial city is an area with an old palace and so on, which is surrounded by a city wall within Hue. The area is 2km x 2km. And here too, it is incredibly beautiful, but today the temperature rose to 44 degrees and my stamina was once again limited.

However, I had the feeling that everyone felt the same way and we encouraged each other and laughed a lot. It was so exhausting, but also one of the most beautiful and fun days.

In the evening I was full of energy for the first time and Finja and I went out to party a bit. First we went to a kind of bar where a DJ was playing and then we somehow ended up in a free club. Apart from that, it was a holiday all over Vietnam because on April 30, 1975, Vietnam won the war and a lot of people were out and about.

Day 6

It was Lea's birthday and she wanted an avocado bread for breakfast and wanted to see the most beautiful train route in Vietnam.

And she got it. We had a very good breakfast and got on the train to Da Nang around midday. The train ride between Hue and Da Nang is supposedly the most beautiful in Vietnam and yes, I can understand why. You drive along overgrown cliffs and look directly into the open ocean. Really pretty.

In the evening we played a bit of billiards and then went back to Ho Chi Minh.

that's really it now... ciaoooooooo