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6 July: Lan Co

07h00, packed and ready to go, we paid our debts to the hotel, collected our passports and headed across the road to enjoy an early breakfast of Coa Lau. From there it was a 2km walk to the bus station. There we were hurriedly directed onto a yellow bus heading for Danang. The officer wanted us to sit in front, looking back I realized why, he was collecting fees from the locals and they were paying 10 000 each. Knowing we would be charged more I waited until we started driving and the driver asked us for 20 000, I offered to pay 15 000 and continued in a joking fashion for 15 minutes, but after he wouldn't budge I handed him the 40 000 for the both of us. He was after all a very pleasant person and after asking if he would drop us near the train station agreed thereto.

We arrived in Danang just after 09h00, walking the 500 m to the train station. We had arrived just a little to late for the first train in the morning heading for Lan Co. It left at 09h21 and I had to fight to retain my spot and purchase a ticket, which was now only for 11h30. The person could also not understand me and in the end we got 2 soft seats instead of hard seats which were a bit more expensive.

We moved to the waiting room for our 2 hour wait before bordering the train. On it there was another surprise, a long wait. We only left the station after 13h30, no one knew why or cared, at least we had our books and I finished off mine allowing me to enjoy the scenery for the duration of the 2 hour trip. This stretch of coastline is famed as being the most beautiful in all of Vietnam and it was. We went up and down mountains with the ocean below us with may small deserted coves with white sand...There is also every kind of green imaginible on the way with all the trees and something that looks like a kind of ivy with huge leaves.

We arrived in Lan Co just after 13h00 and were greeted by two familiar faces also at the station. John and Barbara were on their way to Hue and had been waiting for the train for the last 3 hours. They gave us some tips on the costs of the motorcycle taxi's there, where to stay and eat and a few other practical things, before we jumped on the motorcycle taxi and headed for Chi Na guest house, where they had stayed.

Arriving there we haggled a reasonable price and set our bags down, before heading across the road to their uncles restaurant. We ordered a steamed fish as well as a rice and vegetables dish, which we shared among ourselves. Worth every cent!

From there we headed down to the beach for a stroll along this famed coastline. The beaches were scarcely populated, with only a few Vietnamese tourists and no westerners there, yeh. We walked further down the beach, about another 2 km arriving at a section where the locals met up. Here a few beach stalls served beer to tired fisherman while the wives talked and the kids played football or swam in the sea. Amazing how closely knit they were even evident only to an observer. We sat down at one of the stalls on chairs barely 20 cm from the sand and shared a beer, before walking back slowly taking hundreds of photos.

Back at the hotel we were greeted by J & B, they had waited another hour with train employees assuring them a train was on its way, before they gave up and returned for another night. We made plans to stay the next evening and together head for Hue and some other places, enjoying each others company and wanting to save costs by traveling together. Later we went to dinner with them before retiring for an early night.