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10 July: Dong Hoi

We woke up earlier than we would have wanted to, 05h00, but we had to finish up and start walking the 3km to the train station. We had decided the day before to rather walk with our bags, than take a motorbike taxi. Before leaving we cut up a large ripe mango, sharing it between us, then strapped into our bags and headed out the door of our hotel to the train station. Half way we made a pit stop at the vegetarian restaurant we had eaten the previous evening. We decided to order a take away of the rice noodles with meat, the same we had the previous evening and waited the 10 minutes while they prepared it. Take away in hand we continued with the final 1.5 km to the train station.

Everywhere along the way people were jogging along the river front or gathering in large groups outside buildings. For 06h00 in the morning the city was a thriving metropolis. We reached the train station, had a chat with officials just to make sure everything checked out and we were at the right place at the right time, we were. We sat down waiting for the train, which now would be 20 minutes late. At last we were called for and everyone vacated the room, all wanting to get on this specific train. We waited outside for the train to arrive, but after a further 10 minutes unstrapped and settled our bags on the ground. Within 10 minutes the train was there and a frenzy began as everyone streamed towards the train shoving you out the way. We settled into our seats and took out our books as the train departed. It would be a 3 hour journey and we were facing the wrong way, looking back at the fields we had just passed. The scenery was also not as majestic as the previous trips had been, so diving into a new book sounded good.

We arrived at Dong Hoi at 13h00 and were ushered off the train by officials. Walking to the ticket office, we decided to buy our onward ticket to Ninh Binh as the university exams had ended and finding tickets had become increasingly difficult. After about 30 minutes at the ticket office, explaining to them where and when we wanted to go even writing all the details down on paper, we got the tickets. This would be a hard one, literally, the only tickets available for the 12 th was hard seats and we would arrive at 24h00 in Ninh Binh. 9 hours on a park bench may start to hurt after a while and there were only fans available, but thats the way we wanted to travel so it didn't faze us to much. Only one problem left, J & B also wanted to go to Ninh Binh, but considering the limited travel opportunities if they didn't buy a ticket that day they most probably wouldn't find one. We left a message at the booking office hoping they would get it.

Outside the blistering heat got to us as we haggled with taxi drivers to take us to our hotel, the only one we had booked in advance the day before as there were so little. We settled on a price and headed for the beach, our hotel was the closest one thereto. As we arrived it became obvious that they were in deep discussions with the owners of the hotel to get some sort of commission. I headed straight past them to the receptionist and confirmed that we had called the night before and fixed the price to $7. When she agreed I paid the taxi drivers and we headed up to our room, one with an aircon, for once we were glad we had one.

It would be another 2 hours before J & B would arrive and we weren't particularly keen on heading out to the market in the heat of the day nor did we want to go looking for an agent who would assist us to go to the Phong Nha and Tien Son caves. It was already blatantly obvious that very few of the Vietnamese in this quiet fishing village spoke any English, none of them at our guest house did! We headed to the beach, walking down a completely deserted street to a small hill behind which the beach lay. There we found a well shaded grass umbrella and settled in under it. We swam for at least 25 minutes, a little colder than the other beaches further south, before returning to our shaded patch and spending the rest of the time reading.

We arrived back at the hotel not 15 minutes before J & B came. After they had settled in we tried to find an agency that would take us to the caves at a reasonable price. This took far longer than expected, as there were only 3 agencies we could find. After trying two close by I walked off to the furthest one, I didn't know it at first but it was almost 2km one way! I arrived there to find a bus driver who couldn't speak English but indicated that the price was 870 000 VND per person, this was absurd. After struggling to try and find out what the price entailed I walked back, finding Leanne half way who had come looking for me. We walked back stoppling at an agency where they had told me the tour would cost 500 000 VND pp, Leanne had also stopped there and they told her that we could rent a car for 600 000 to take us there, a lot better than 2 million for the four of us. Unfortunately the agent wasn't there and we would have to return at 19h00, because no one else spoke english (not that his english was really any good either.

We walked back to where J & B was waiting for us, after which we looked for a restaurant. First heading in the direction of the market but turning around after a while because all of us were very hungry and not exactly sure where the market was. We walked back to the city where we had seen some stalls earlier only to find there was a blackout in the city. In the dark with cars and scooters hooting as they pass we found a side alley with a street stall. We settled in for a noodle soup and rice and peanut dish by candle light :-) After dinner we headed back to the travel agent and booked and paid for the car. They would pick us up at 07h30 the next morning taking us the 55 km there and waiting until we were finished to take us back to Dong Hoi. We headed back to the hotel and settled in for an early evening, considering we would be up at 06h00 again.