The Road to Phan Rang

After running through my options for the next place to go I decided south would be my best bet. I'd have to make my way back to Ho Chi Minh eventually, so why not do it in a couple of smaller trips instead of going north and then having to take an 8 or 15 hour train ride back. The next city south, Phan Rang, was about a 2 hour ride away.

I approached a couple of tourist booking shops near my hotel and asked about trains or buses south to Phan Rang. There was a lot of confusion about the train departure times so I decided bus was the way to go. The guy at the last shop I visited said that it was too late for him to sell me a bus ticket, but that if I got to the bus station within 20 minutes I could still buy a ticket there for 150,000 VND.

Upon arriving at the bus station I explained where I was headed to the first person I saw. This guy brought me around to the other side of the station toward a small beat up white van with a card board Phan Rang sign in the front window. The guy then asked me for 200,000 VND at which point I turned around and walked away to go find my tourist bus, but then they guy changed the price to 75,000 VND and I decided maybe the van was worth a shot.

After about 15 minutes we left the bus station and appeared to be on our way, but as I would learn the van doesn't work quite the same as the bus. After about 5 minutes we pulled over at some random shop and one of the guys yelled something out the window at a group of people, one of the people stepped forward and hopped in the van. On the way out of town the van did this repeatedly, eventually picking up 4 people, a bird and a mysterious brick shaped package.

The Package

A Cat and a Gecko

While walking around during the day I noticed a sign with a cat on it that seamed to be advertising a restaurant hidden in an alleyway. The cat stuck in my mind all day so when dinner time came around I decided to go back and investigate. After ordering a noodle bowl I waited for a while and sipped on my beer to pass the time, after about 15 minutes something interesting happened. A car drove up next to the restaurant and a kid hopped out with a large box and rushed into the kitchen area of the restaurant, literally 20 seconds later someone popped out of the same door to bring me my dish and the kid ran back to the car. The dish was a great value and the owner seamed like a cool person to chat with, but I'm pretty sure there was no kitchen behind that door.

cat

Morning in Nha Trang

After scanning the immediate area for places to eat, I settled for a little shack next to my hotel which had slightly more reasonable prices than the surrounding places. For about 3 dollars I was able to get a nice alligator dish to get my morning going. Later on in the day I noticed several other clones of this place around town using the exact same menu, I was slightly disappointing that I'd chosen the Nha Trang's equivalent for Mc Donalds, but I guess I should have realized that a place called "Same Same But Cheaper", might not be the most original place around.

Same Same But Cheaper

Train From Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang

After spending a couple days exploring Ho Chi Minh I decided it was time to get out of the city and find some smaller destinations in southern Vietnam. The train seamed to be the most logical route, so I made it to the train station and booked a ticket for Nha Trang, a city about 800 km north. At the train station I purchased a burger at the fast food joint Lotteria and waited around a bit for the boarding call. While I waited I determined that either all the train stations clocks were an hour behind, or all my devices clocks were an hour ahead. As it turned out, Vietnam is in a different time zone then Beijing, leaving me with another hour to wait around for the train to leave after the boarding call.

Lotteria burger