On the Train to Da Nang

Da Nang, Vietnam
16.0544°N, 108.2022°E

The city of Da Nang is on central Vietnam’s coast, about 550 miles north of Ho Chi Minh.

It’s an 18-hour drive or an hour flight to Da Nang, but we (I) decided that taking the overnight train from Ho Chi Minh would be a very cool way to experience Vietnam and see some of its countryside.

The train to Da Nang takes approximately 17-hours, and snakes up along Vietnam’s east coast making about half a dozen stops along the way. We were on Vietnam Railway’s SE2 train, which leaves at 7:30 p.m. and arrives the following day in Da Nang around noon.

I gave Sarah most of the details about the train, but as we boarded and were shown our accommodations I realized maybe I left out a few important ones.

We (I) opted for one of the “soft berth” four-person cabins on the train (a two-person cabin was not an option). The cabin had two single mattresses stacked on each side sandwiching a small window that did not open. There were seven cabins in our car, each with at least four people. We shared our car with a group from Ho Chi Minh that was traveling to Da Nang for a company retreat. It was mostly adults, but a handful of kids were making the trip with their parents.

I realized almost immediately after boarding that I had failed to give Sarah all of the information about the train. I kinda, sorta forgot to tell her we would be bunking up with two other people and that there was no “café car” for our overnight journey. We didn’t have time to grab any snacks before the trip, so whatever was being served for dinner we were eating.

All of the passengers on the train were Vietnamese, with the exception of one other couple visiting from Germany. While we were getting settled in our cabin the conductor came in and very nicely told us that we would have to move cabins. He moved us in with the Germans but because we don’t speak Vietnamese we have no idea why. The couple spoke very good English so it ended up being nice having others to talk to on the trip.

Once Sarah got over the tight quarters and the mosquito colony above her bunk, we (Sarah) relaxed a bit and settled into our digs. Our German bunkmates were very friendly and the accommodations were not as awkward as we (Sarah) anticipated. The toilet situation was a bit more challenging.

We (I) really enjoyed the train. After a dinner of rice soup which we (I) thought was great, I was invited by a man in his 80s to come hang out in his cabin. He spoke no English, but was making the universal sign for drinking (thumb to lips, pinky to the sky), so I decided to follow him.

His cabin was filled with six other Vietnamese men all drinking rice wine from an Aquafina water bottle, which was being refilled from a plastic gasoline container stored under one of the beds. Within seconds of sitting down, I had a shot of this foreign liquid in front of me, followed by a few more. They had a bag of rice crisps and fresh pineapple dipped in salt that they offered to me as well. There was lots of laughing and thumbs up back and forth, but little English. After a while, Sarah was wondering where I disappeared to and walked down the car to find me with my new friends.

The Morning After

The train was pretty rocky throughout the night, and each of the stops jolted us awake as we smashed into the bed rails. We managed to get a few hours of sleep between downloaded Netflix movies and woke up the next morning to some amazing scenery.

Back to the Beach

We arrived in Da Nang and were pleased that the weather was slightly cooler than Saigon. It was still in the upper 80s but a bit of a relief from the hotter and more humid weather down south.

We were booked at an Airbnb at a family’s home located a few blocks from My An Beach. We took a cab from the train station and were greeted by one of the three boys living with their parents. We were showed our room, dropped our bags off and headed off to find a lunch spot by the beach.

My An (pronounced “My An”) is along a 20 mile stretch of beach that was referred to as China Beach by Americans during the Vietnam War. It was the place soldiers would go for rest and relaxation, and if you’ve seen “Apocalypse Now” the scene where the U.S. soldier is surfing is supposed to be on Da Nang’s coast. Da Nang is still considered one of Vietnam’s few good spots to surf.

In the last 10 or so years, Da Nang has become a very popular holiday destination. There are golf courses, luxury spas and more than a hundred resorts in the area. Driving along the coastal road it feels a bit like a Florida resort town with the palm trees separating the beach from the street.

For about a dollar, you can rent a small beach cabana with waiters who will serve you beer or cocktails, or in our case will run to the local shop to deliver you ice coffees.

Spitting Fire

In addition to its beaches, Da Nang is also known for the Dragon Bridge that connects its downtown to the beach areas. The bridge was completed in 2013 and has a very unique feature. Every Saturday and Sunday at 9:00 p.m. the bridge shuts down for about 15 minutes so the dragon can spit fire and water onto the crowds below.

Sarah and I lucked out as our last night in Da Nang happened to be on a Saturday, so we walked from our Airbnb to get dinner and see the show. We had heard you can get soaked by the water show if you’re on the bridge, so we opted to stay back a bit and watch from a distance.

Afterward, we headed across the bridge to check out some of the cafes on the other side of the river. This dragon show is very popular with the locals, and there weren’t many tourists around as we walked across the bridge. Sarah and I were stopped several times so people could ask us where we were from and take pictures with us.

We’ve found in our first week in Vietnam that parents will push their kids to approach us and practice their English. This happened on the train, in Da Nang and even in Ho Chi Minh. We’ve found the people so far to be extremely friendly and genuinely curious about where we live and how we like Vietnam.

We’ve heard that our next stop, Hoi An, has an even more friendly vibe and are very much looking forward to spending the next two weeks exploring that town.