Nha Trang in a flash

It's funny: days in Vietnam are either really really good or plain awful. After a couple of really really good days, we were thrown for a loop with one of the worse days yet. It started with an innocent mishap. We made arrangements to get driven by a private car to the nearest train station 45 minutes from Hoi An to begin our train ride to Nha Trang. When a very clean and very nice Honda showed up, we were both a bit hesitant. What's going on here? This is too good to be true.

It was.

Halfway through the drive, our driver received a call from his frantic co-worker. He hadn't showed up yet to pick up his guests. Apparently, he had gotten confused and went to the wrong hotel just 10 minutes before our actual driver from another company did, and assumed we were his people. We had to turn around, back to town, to hop into a danky little minivan, and had to spend the next 45 minutes wondering if we would make our train.

Little did we know, we were signed up to get on the sloooooooooooowest train possible. It came late. And instead of getting to Nha Trang at around 9pm like we had originally hoped, and not at 11pm like we were later told, but midnight! Nha Trang, although lovely during the day, isn't the best place to be looking for a hotel after the sun sets. We arrived to a random hotel, woke up the staff who were sleeping in the lobby, and did manage to get a decent room that is almost all bug-free and stinky-free.

The train itself was rough. Our cabin door kept getting slammed open by a few cowboy kids who thought it was funny to slam our door. I think my question to Dave that day sums it up: Is this what prison feels like?

Anyhow. A few hours of sleep later, we did manage to have one of those "really really good" days again. Instead of trying to do any sight-seeing, we rented a couple of beach lounge chairs under our own umbrella and laid there for about 5 hours. We had to cut our Nha Trang stay short, however, when we decided at the last minute to try to make a trip to my family's village south of Saigon to say hello and to introduce my relatives to my new husband. My "rich" uncle in Canada decided to move back there, and he built a fairly large...mansion with A/C and all. Hopefully we can get in touch with him and he can send his SUV up to Saigon to pick us up. They're a bit far, so we need to get to Saigon a day earlier to make it happen. We'll be spending tonight on a 12 hour bus ride (how many 12 hour rides can this country have?!), but there will be beds on the bus, and hopefully...some air conditioning.

We've definitely been grateful for all the help that you (our friends and family) have given us to make this trip happen. Thanks again!