Rather short but decent sleep on the train, a pickup ride from the train station and we are at Chumphon ferry pier waiting for our speedboat to Tao.
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Bangkok passed after a morning flight from Da Nang. As usual we deposited the fat boy (our 30kg bag) in the CentralwOrld shopping mall baggage storage. Before that we attempted to leave the bags at the railway station, but unfortunately the fat thing did not fit the storage lockers. The other bags could be left there though, so it was just one bag to drag through the busy shopping mall... As an additional bonus the shopping mall had some kind of Japan Expo going on, with huge crowds of cosplay hobbyists in their anime suits... We visited the Finnish embassy to vote, bought some random stuff in a diving shop like a dive flashlight and had tasty sushi. Add shopping for some cables, visiting a camera store and attempting to buy local sim cards and that was quite a bit of program for our short stop in the city. We also learnt finally that using taxi to reach the city from the railway station is stupid. The city traffic is so stuck that it takes an hour, while a metro to a nearby station takes maybe 10 minutes. Still need taxi between the metro station and the railway station, but there the traffic flows normally. Now in the night train to Chumphon and in the morning we should continue to Tao with a speedboat.
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Today we got an idea to visit the historical site of My Son. Unfortunately it is located some 40 kilometers from Da Nang, over an hour drive. Taxi would be rather expensive (like 20eur one way.. :) ) so we naturally selected an economy option of self-driving. In Vietnam driving cars or motorcycles is only allowed with Vietnamese driver's license or with the international license. I didn't think about that while still in Finland or actually did not even plan to come to Vietnam, so did not obtain such license before the trip. The international license is nowadays basically useless anywhere in the world, but seems like here not. There was a solution though. Electric scooters are not limited by the license. So, we got one. And they are not even bad, this one had 100km real range and was going 50km/h silently. The acceleration performance with one fat guy and one smaller person was not great, but good enough. Vietnamese traffic is not nice though. It's way worse than in most Asian countries like Thailand. 90% of the traffic is scooters, and nobody follows any basic traffic rules like driving directions and lines. In cities it's feeling like a video game where everything is trying to hit you from all directions, you have to avoid them and you have only one life. :) Well, we survived just fine. And My Son was rather nice, although hot place in the jungle. Also visited a Greek restaurant and an another night market.
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Three hours of train in the morning and we are again in a new city, this time much bigger and more modern Da Nang at seaside. Again just walking around the city and visiting markets was enough program for the day, combined with some hours of working. And a tasty pizza. :) Finding breakfast was surprisingly difficult in Hue, as all the local cafes seem to only sell coffee and other drinks and not the usual breakfast stuff. And in the small city like Hue there were not too many restaurants catering for more western tourist way and schedule of eating.. Well, two coffees were enough for breakfast. In Da Nang the same problem shouldn't occur as the city is way larger.
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After a surprisingly well slept night we found ourself in the city of Hue at early morning. I just cannot understand the Asian people and their behaviour with air conditioning. If there is AC, it needs to be at maximum power and cold as a fridge. It was relatively chilly in the train, even under a blanket... Hue however is not chilly, we are back at normal tropical temperatures and it was actually rather hot at daytime. Time to pack the hats, gloves and sweaters back into our fat bag for the rest of the trip. The sunny and hot day was spent just by walking around the city, visiting the imperial city and palace of Hue and having a nice massage. Tomorrow it's again a moving day, a short two-three hours train trip to the nearby city of Da Nang. Then a couple of days there before the flight to Bangkok on Saturday. I like the price level of Vietnam by the way. Tasty dinner for two with two different appetizers and main courses and one beer for each and a smoothie was around 11 euros. :)
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Yesterday we did absolutely nothing. Or well, we moved to an another hotel next to the train station, I managed to fix some work things and both were just lazy in the hotel room. We even ordered delivery food to the hotel, being too lazy to go out in the evening. Today was a bit more active day, walking around the city, sending post cards and visiting the famous water puppet theatre. An interesting experience, although not maybe that much my thing. Was still a beautiful show though. In the evening we boarded our train towards central Vietnam, first to Hue and later probably to Da Nang for our flight to Thailand on Saturday. This relatively comfortable train (similar to the Ukrainian ones for example, with four bed cabins) will travel all night, being like 16 hours ride.
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Tomorrow was spent by walking some 15 kilometers around the city, visiting some of the main sights. We started with the Ho Lao prison, a former French colonial prison for political prisoners and later a Vietnamese prison for wartime US pilots, called Hanoi Hilton by them. Cannot say that it was a happy place, maybe one of the most depressing and distressing prisons we have visited. The next in the program was Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and the presidential quarters, followed by some kind of food fair and a temple area. The first impression of Hanoi was maybe a bit depressing yesterday, but I'm actually starting to like it. It's somehow very different from the other South-East Asian cities, refreshing. The culture maybe feels a bit more like Korean or something, maybe at least the dressing of young people. :)
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This was unexpected. Neither one of us happened to check how is the weather in Hanoi and we were expecting some nice and warm tropical weather. Was quite a surprise at the airport to realize it's +11C and we are in shorts... Had to buy a hat and gloves later in the city. Hanoi surprised me quite a bit. I never checked any pictures or anything of the city and I was expecting something similar to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur or other Asian capitals. I guess the socialist history and cooperation with Soviet Union have left it's mark, as the city architecture and feeling is somehow very soviet outside the old town. It's like we landed somewhere in the eastern Europe. The old quarters are more Asian, but still different from all the other Asian cities we have been so far. Very interesting. Tested a Vietnamese restaurant too. Interesting food and an interesting way of eating it. There's a lot of vegetables in the food and you eat it kind of like tacos. Take a rice paper sheet, make it moist by rubbing it with a lettuce and then pile vegetables and meat on it, roll it and dip in sauce when eating. We arrived late, so we just walked a bit around the nearby area and obtained Vietnamese SIM cards. Tomorrow more sightseeing.
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Night at an airport hotel, a lounge coffee for breakfast and the journey continues towards Vietnam. I didn't even remember how big the KL airport and the attached shopping mall are. Took an hour to find our way to the hotel, but at least there's quite a bit of selection for food and shopping. Feels strange to be in a modern city/country with a lot of people after the weeks in the remote corners of the world. :)
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First flight of the day done, layover in Makassar and soon boarding the next flight to Kuala Lumpur. Ear feels better too.
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