Jill and Jennie went for a walk this morning to see the fishermen come in with their catch for the market.
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It's a busy spot even at 6:30am. Before leaving the market, they bought what they thought was Banh it (a Vietnamese sticky rice cake), but it turned out to be something savoury. Oh well!! Also purchased some dried bananas (they seem to have an interesting ginger taste) and some mandarins for snacks on the train.
The taxi minivan arrived to take us back to Danang to the Railway station to catch the train to Nha Trang (just as well it was big, as we now have an extra bag and Richard and Jennie have two extra bags - will they let us on the plane with all this shopping when it's time to go home?).
On the way, the taxi stopped at Marble Mountain so that we could have a quick look and take some photos. In this area, almost every home had a marble carving business (shop). It was interesting to stop this time, as on the way to Hoi An we had only driven through the area. Marble Mountain (Ngũ Hành Sơn) is a cluster of five limestone–marble peaks, famous for its caves, pagodas, wartime history, and sweeping coastal views. We didn't get to see any of that, but we did see plenty of marble-carved statues.
While the businesses would have used local marble originally, we discovered that the marble used is no longer sourced locally. Vietnam stopped quarrying marble from Ngũ Hành Sơn decades ago to protect the mountains as a spiritual Buddhist site, a war‑era historical landmark and a major tourism asset. Marble is now imported from Quảng Nam, Thanh Hóa, and even from overseas.
On to the railway station at Danang for our 12-hour trip down the coast. The train trip - much more room than a minivan. At least one can stretch out, stand up and walk around a bit. We have a whole carriage almost to ourselves, a woman with a child and an older gentleman the only other occupants.
The food that people occasionally brought around didn't get too many points, though. We tried a parcel in banana leaf we thought might be sticky rice, but it turned out to be some sausage thing. At 11:00 lunch arrived - rice and three containers with soup, pork, vegetables and some other meat. Jill reckoned she wasn't even hungry enough to eat the rice. Dinner was similar to lunch, although one of the containers held fish, which was edible, added to the rice. One saving grace during the day was a woman hopping on at one of the stops selling boiled eggs - served on a little plastic bag with a tiny pile of salt and pepper mixed together. The trip was mainly through the countryside. - lots and lots of rice paddies. It was a long trip. Thank goodness the seats were pretty comfortable and reclined - conducive to a nap or two.
The last few hours in the dark dragged on until at last we arrived at Nha Trang station - at least we assumed it was Nha Trang Station, as it was a bit hard to know with all the announcements in Vietnamese and there were no signs in sight. Alex had his GPS with maps showing we had arrived, so we were confident enough to get off the train. That in itself was a bit of a challenge with all our luggage. One had to climb down out of the train, cross other railway tracks and then climb up onto the platform. When we got out of the station, we were surrounded by touts wanting to "help" us to their taxi and their hotel, etc etc. No sign of Mr Bu from La Paloma, our accommodation for the next couple of nights. We had to ring him in the end, and soon after he appeared in his old canvas-top jeep. No room for luggage plus the 4 of us, so the luggage ended up tied to the roof.
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