Day 12 – Vietnam

Half day marathon scooter rides make you wake up slow. I hear people practicing karate outside on the promenade by the bay. The sounds of scooters fill our room as the light pours in slowly. We make it to breakfast and plan our next move. An overnight train to Nha Trang this time in the fancy soft sleeper car. Luxury travel.

I watch the morning pass. We soak up the last couple hours in the hotel room before checkout. Tet is coming fast and travel will get harder and harder. We want to come back for Tet.

We eat lunch and walk around. We end up in the fabric market. We meet Miss An number 90 I’m told it’s very important to include number 90. We look at some clothing options and in 10 minutes are picking out dresses and suits. A suit for me and 2 dresses for Dawn. It’s 4:30 and they say by 6:30 they will be done. I pick out some material Dawn does the same.

We head back to the hotel grab some Xe May’s (scooters) and ride out to farm land. The farm land by the city has little sidewalk like motorbike roads on the berms around ride paddies, fish farms, and lakes. It’s quite stunning scenery and I love that kids still come out screaming hello! Hello!

It’s getting dark so we hightail it back to town and drop off the cycles. We head back to the tailor to try on our clothes. My pants arrive first, they fit perfectly. My jacket and one of dawns dresses both awesome. The last dress isn’t finished but the market is closing so Ms An puts us on some scooters Dawn on the back of hers me on the back of the pants maker and we zip across town to her dress maker. The sewing machines they use are amazing. A barefooted woman in her late 20’s zips through Dawns second dress with the precision you get from doing something years and years.

The dress comes out nice but now we need to leave. So they throw us back on the scooters and we are whisked away again. It’s pretty surreal riding on the back of a scooter flying through the streets. Lanterns hang everywhere and almost every street pole has lights flags and other decorations for Tet, it’s stunning in the day. At night it’s surreal.

We get back to the hotel and promise to leave a great review for Ms An she deserves it. I love my suit and can’t wait to wear it. We get a ride to Da Nang to catch the train south.

Da nang is lit up like its the 4th of July. It’s as crowded as hanoi maybe more and the roads are packed with psychotic scooter maniacs. They ride hard here.

We’re on the train.

People are social here. We watch as they zip into cafe’s on scooters. They stay for a couple hours and then leave. Much like birds do in some trees. You watch a flock of birds all descend on a single tree and you don’t know why. It’s much like that here. People descend on some corner here. They sit down with friends have tea and eat sun flower seeds. They are seated in 5–10 deep on the sidewalk. And then for no apparent reason they all leave almost at the same time. Poof they are gone.

Read the other entries from our Vietnam trip below
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 4 1/2 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 8 1/2 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 16 – Day 17 – Day 18 – Day 19 – Day 20 – Day 21