Getting on the train was great with the super helpful bellman (from Hanoi).
Sherrill did some negotiating and although they wouldn't give us our money back...they would send the clothes to our hotel in Ho Chi Minh. The pieces had been cut, but were at a different location.. Right. Scam city. With 10 minutes until our taxi, we raced back to the hotel, foregoing the much coveted banh mi.
We had a pretty quiet car-mate from 11pm-4am. Then she left and was replaced by a young Vietnamese mother and her two kids. TWO! They actually weren't that bad. The baby just liked to say the same thing over and over again and then the small girl was a vomiter...we found that out about 3 minutes before we got off the train..when we were alone in the car with the kid. We took that as our cue to leave.
Here's Sherrill checking out the scenery on the ride (before the puking).
It was raining when we got to Da Nang an hour late at 2pm, so we got to use our rain covers for the first time. The shuttle picked us up from the train station and delivered us to the hotel. The Sunshine Hotel...pretty ironic as it didn't stop raining pretty much the entire time we were there.
This was the time we had three permanent beds - so that was nice...but there were quite a few ants in the room. The air con was not too helpful either with regulating the temperature.
We ventured out the 20 minute walk in the rain to the old town. We found a restaurant called Trip Nguyen. It was a new restaurant and the food was decent. Actually they had a really nice banana pancake with chocolate. We asked the host, Sean, if he knew of any good tailors and he said, yes and the his mom's shop was next door. He delivered us next door and Mo and I opted to get 2 items made each. After much thought and consideration, Sherrill decided to pass. Sean's sister measured us, we paid, and the next day at 4pm our clothes would be done.
We went to a bar and got pretty gross Sam Miguels. How do you mess that up? We then opted for cocktails..nope, bad decision, even more gross. At least they had free foosball. Slightly defeated, we walked home, in the rain.
The next day Mo and I had booked a food tour. This was like the end all be all food tour..thing I was perhaps most excited about. We got up at 6am to do our squats/abs/arms/plank challenge and be ready for our 7.25 pick up. Sat in the lobby as it poured outside. 7.25....7.35....7.40....7.45. Check my email...7.22: booking cancelled...tasting room flooded. BUST!!! I went back down to breakfast with Sherrill since we weren't supposed to eat before the tour. I did very much enjoy the fried tofu. I spent the rest of the day pretty much doing nothing as it poured outside. The girls got massages at the hotel and I did have cao lau noodles that were tasty at the hotel for lunch.
After the rain subsided in the evening, we ventured out to find our clothes and get dinner at the white sail (where the food tour guide recommended in his emai)l. We made it about 4 blocks from the tailor. Flooded. Bust...not so bad...let's try tomorrow. So we make it to the restaurant and try to order the recommended dishes. Tamarind crab. Out. Prawns. Out. BUST!!! We did manage to order the stuffed squid and aubergine dishes. I taste the squid...hmmm...prawn shell?? Spit that out. Mo tastes the squid... Plastic???! So we talk to the waitress and do a bit of googling and figure out they've just not cleaned the squid properly and it's a strip of cartilage..GROSS!!
Again a little more defeated, return to the hotel hoping the waters would recede the next day before we have to leave.
We woke up the next day -- Sherrill's birthday!!!! It wasn't raining! We had breakfast and hopped on the free bikes from the hotel rather than the 20 minute walk. We make it about 2 blocks from the tailor... Still flooded. Try again from several angles, nothing is working. Once again defeated... Back to the hotel. Now trying everything we tried before....email, phone calls, even to the restaurant next door...nothing worked. We checked out of the hotel at 11:45 and rode back to the scene. Still flooded. Sherrill and Mo decided to brave the waters, but only Sherrill made it all the way. I stayed behind with my lack of skill/confidence biking through flood waters and my ipad in my purse.
Check out the Ho Chi Minh post for the ending... I know you'll be waiting on the edge of you seats.
So I'm going to try to keep the complaining posts to just this one, since I am still amazingly grateful to be on this journey.. And let's face it, it has rained maybe 4 days in 2+months...that's a pretty good record.
Also, an important footnote. Since Dubai, almost all of the photos on the blog have been courtesy of Mo. So if you're giving her a hard time for not doing a blog you can apologise :) -- she is just being efficient. Our blogs would say the same things and have the same photos. What would the point of that be?!
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