TUY HOA & QUANG NGAI – OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

LEAVING WHALE ISLAND

After getting the boat back from Whale Island, to the mainland village of Dam Mon, we hopped in our taxi and headed to Tuy Hoa.

We were generally heading in the direction of the bigger, touristy towns, of Danang and Hoi An, but decided on stopping off in a couple of the smaller towns on the way.

The journey to Tuy Hoa should have taken around an hour, but we were delayed due to a gravel truck, crashing into an oncoming lorry, overturning and spilling its load in the road. Our driver was being paid based on distance, not time, so after a while he’d had enough of it and went rogue. He drove in between idle cars and forced his way over the huge pile of rubble. Trooper.

The weather had been pretty decent when we left Whale Island, but as soon as we arrived in Tuy Hoa, the heavens opened. Seriously heavy rain.

We jumped out of the taxi and ran to the hotel lobby.

We were staying in a place called Thanh Long Hotel. As this town was not touristy in the slightest, we got a really good deal on the room. $10 USD for a huge double room, with ensuite bathroom and balcony.

We promptly checked in and watched the storm from the balcony in our room.

We were greeted to the greyest of skies.

It was raining so hard, that the street had gone from bone dry, to a running river within five minutes. This didn’t put the scooter riders off though, they simply popped on a poncho and carried on regardless.

Starving, we waited for the rain to stop, before we could grab some food. We realised this was futile though, as it looked like it wasn’t ending any time soon.

We’d picked a place on the map, five minutes walk away, called Bob’s American Café.

We got down to the hotel lobby, braced ourselves and ran to the café. It was serving typical Western fare, so maybe they did cater for some level of tourism here. I had a pizza and chips, which was pretty good and we watched the rain from a covered roof terrace here.

After dinner, we headed back towards the hotel, as there wasn’t really much for us to do here, especially considering the weather. On the way, stopping for a coffee to duck out of the rain.

We got an early night and were headed to the next town on our way towards Danang – Quang Ngai.

GETTING THE TRAIN TO QUANG NGAI

One of the reasons for getting to Tuy Hoa, was so that we could get to a town with a train station that would take us further North to Danang. There was one stop before Danang, however. Quang Ngai. So we decided to break it up and stop off there for a night.

We got a taxi to the train station, which was only a couple of kilometres away, purchased our tickets and waited for the train to arrive.

This was the first train I travelled on in Vietnam and I was anxious to see if it was as dilapidated and uncomfortable as the train I got in Myanmar to Bagan. My standards and expectations in Asia were at an all time low and I wasn’t prepared for this.

This was the most luxurious train journey I have ever had!

Fantastically air conditioned. Quiet. And with huge, lazyboy-type, reclining seats. Dreams.

The journey was about 270 km and took about 4 hours in total. I was so glad to be travelling there in comfort.

QUANG NGAI

We arrived in Quang Ngai, early afternoon and took a taxi to our hotel – Riverside hotel. Another large, comfortable room and again, great value.

The town of Quang Ngai is situated on the banks of the river Sông Trà Khúc and we took a walk around the town that afternoon and along the river bank.

The town was quiet and totally tourist free. It reminded me a little of some of the towns I’d visited in Myanmar, as the local kids came running up to us, asking our names and where we were from, laughing as we answered back to them in English.

One thing I spotted while wandering around Quang Ngai, was a guy trying to transport a large fridge on the back of his scooter, without strapping it to anything.

He had help from a couple of guys, but I thought this was insane and no chance that he would ever be able to do this.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way though.

And off he went. Skills.

As with Tuy Hoa, it started to rain again while we were in Quang Ngai. We darted into a restaurant to grab some food and sink a couple of Tiger beers until the rain passed.

We headed back to the hotel after dinner and Holly found a dead cockroach in the room. At least we thought it was dead. She scooped it up in some toilet paper and just to make sure, snapped it in two and threw it in the bin in the room. She’s not as squeamish around bugs as me, fortunately!

That night, while in bed we were awoken by a faint thumping noise. We switched on the lights and it took us a few minutes to identify the source of the noise.

It was coming from the bin.

The cockroach had risen from the ashes. What the hell!!!???!!

I put a shoe on top of the bin and went to sleep. The cleaners could deal with it.

OFF TO DANANG

The next morning we were heading off on the train again to the city of Danang for one night, before journeying to Hoi An.

Read on for more….