Vietnam – Part 4
All Aboard The Night Train
Like I said part 3 of the Vietnam trip…it was time for another journey on a night train. This time the experience was a little less than the first journey. Our beds were slept on already and apparently no new sheets were available. So I placed my towel on the bed and pillow. Unfortunately we also had people staying in the cabin with us, I am glad we booked the bottom beds though! The couple sleeping in the top beds were from Poland. They were very friendly fortunately!
When we got on the train I made the stupid mistake of forgetting our bag with food and drinks under the seat on the platform. Luckily I realised it just before the train left. I raced outside and Leon was hanging from the window pointing at a woman who picked up the bag. The conductor got it back for us. Would have otherwise been a loooooong journey without that bag!
The train left Hue Station at approximately 8pm and set off to Binh Thuan Station where we would arrive at 1pm the next day. I woke up pretty early in the morning, as soon as the sun came out because the temperature in our cabin got crazy hot: 30° celcius. Seemed like our aircon wasn’t working properly. Together with the Polish guy also staying in our cabin I walked to the back of the train to get coffee. Other compartments were freezing cold and the ones close to the dining car were actually seating only. The first ones we walked through had comfortable seats but in the last one, peopel were sitting on wooden benches. I hope not all night!
After coffee it was time for breakfast. A conductor came around asking if people wanted breakfast: ‘rice and chicken’. We were quite hungry so sure, why not! A little later he came back with his foodcart. Now I gotta tell you, I do not like to pluck my meat of the bone so I never eat drumsticks…and of course…the ‘chicken’ was a chicken leg. Oh well, hunger makes a person do things they normally wouldn’t and so I plucked my meat of the bone!
After 17 long hours we finally arrived at Binh Thuan Station. Now we had to get a taxi to our hotel in Mũi Né. Our Polish friends had a hotel a little further down the road, they were supposed to be picked up but their driver didn’t show up. So after a little haggling with the taxi drivers at the station we shared a taxi to the resorts.
After freshing up an relaxing a little we decided to rent motorbikes and head out to an abandoned themepark.
We figured the main entrance wouldn’t be a problem but we were wrong. There were quite a lot of people outside the themepark and one guy was selling lottery tickets or something like that. As we walked up to the bridge (entrance) he told us ‘No’. He probaly made enough money on his tickets because he couldn’t be bought either.
So we decided to get on our bikes to try a different way in. We drove it little further along, where there was a big castle which had another bridge behind it. Here a man with a cow came walking along, when we pointed out the we wanted to go to the castle he nodded in approval so we found our way in afterall.
The Creepy Themepark
Many parts of the themepark had unfortunately already been demolished. None of the rides were there anymore but was was left were some creepy, creepy, CREEPY statues of for example Mickey & Mini Mouse but also a cheeta biting a deer. What the heck…even when the park was functional these must have been terrifying to kids!
At the back of the castle there was a field filled with Elephant statues and the entrance to the mirror palace was against some sort of ‘Great wall of china’. I think the part I liked most was the castle & the main entrance.
There were also two really cool dragon statues situated near the entrance. We had to be carefull and couln’t get too close because then the lottery people would be able to see us and we didn’t want any trouble.
After exploring the themepark we drove back to the resort to get ready for dinner. We were the only ones in the restaurant and to our surprise suddenly there was live entertainment. As you can see on the photo…they had a huge audience. A small cat came to our table to beg for food. He was such a cutie eating french fries!
Coastal Motorbike Trip
The next morning we woke up with sun shining bright! A perfect day for a trip along the coast on our motorbikes. We had found some abandoned resorst that we wanted to check out so after breakfast we headed out.
We decided to drive all the way to the point on or map which was the farthest away first and then on the way back, check everything else. So first stop was the Blue World Resort. Abandoned? By tourist yes, but there were many Vietnamese families living in the abandoned buildings which made us the tourist attraction of the day. Two white people with camera’s that is something they don’t see everyday *lol*
The blue world resort had the coolest pool of them all. Half of it was covered in weeds (Vietnamese Water Hyacinth) and there was an awesome dragon coming out of a rock wall.
There was also a well kept reception area and a stranded boat by the beach. The little chalets were all empty and boring though.
Up next was a resort where renovations seemed to have started but stopped again also. Just a short drive up the road we found our next abandoned resort. This one seemed to be guarded, we heard someone snoring in one of the buildings closest to the road. The rest of the place was completely empty, no people living here either.
Along the way we had some food at a roadside restaurant before stopping at a building which seemed abandoned as well. With this one all the chalets were sealed, but the main building could be entered
Last check on the route back to our hotel was a place that we noticed when we first arrived in the south. From the taxi it seemed abandoned but we couldn’t figure out what is was. When we drove up, we immediately were noticed by security. We gave him some money and he looked the other way so we could explore what appeared to be an old campus or something like that. It was kind of weird, there were cow statues on the property. There was one building that still had some school benches in them. All the others were empty. Not the easiest place to photograph but nice to explore!
Back at the hotel I found out that driving in the sun all day had given me a bit of a tan…and also a little bit of a sunburn. Whoops!
next day we were heading towards Saigon // Ho Chi Minh City. In part 5 I will tell you about the final days in Vietnam.
