Coffee with a side of Tea (leaving Dalat)

Coffee with a side of Tea

Leaving Dalat was not easy. In retrospect, I should have spent more time there. Motivated by desire to see everything Vietnam has to offer, I headed to Nha Trang. Nha Trang is one of the big tourist destinations mainly for the beach. As a beach girl, of course I am drawn to the water no matter how much of a scene it is. Even if it is only for a short swim, the salt water always leaves me with a smile on my face. So, despite my initial attraction to seeing the beach in Vietnam I gave into my partnerś logical reasoning that Nha Trang would be a total zoo. Instead, we took the night train to Da Nang since the train doesnt stop in Hoi An.

The overnight trains tend to be 3 or 4 times the price of the overnight bus. There were 2 Vietnamese men in our 6 bed cabin. The Starer just stared at us all night. The Obnoxious guy played elevator music on his laptop all night and kept turning the main light on in the middle of the night. Finally, at 5:30 am, we made it to Da Nang. We walked towards the bus station and stopped for Coffee. The great thing about coffee in Southern Vietnam is that it comes with tea. Furthermore, it is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged to linger at the mini-chairs and tables for hours. I have yet to see anyone walking around (or on a motorbike) with a To go coffee.

From Da Nang, we caught the local bus to Hoi An. In an effort to blend in with the local women, I had purchased a SARS mask. Itś a nice blue flowery pattern. Women wear these things all the time. IT totally makes sense for dusty roads, but I'm perplexed about its purpose. So, I just refer to it as the SARS mask. The local bus had a marked price (10000 dong) on the side of the bus. The control freak assistant bus worker tried to charge us 20k each but backed off as soon as we pointed to the sign on the side. The control freak assistant #1 spent the remainder of the ride pushing people off the bus while the wheels were still rolling and practically hoisting new arrivals onto the bus. The highlight was when we stopped in the middle of nowhere and control freak assistant #1 loaded 15-20 large boxes on the bus. Upon further inspection, we realized that the boxes were chicken parts from Sanderson Farms in Mississippi.

I admit, I too am a (chicken) breast girl. My partner had been telling me all along that Americans only eat certain parts of chickens and ship the rest to Asia. Then all of a sudden we were on a bus with the evidence. I'm not sure how I feel about this. In Asia, Ive consistently been eating bowls of soup with chicken gristle, fat, and bones and only a bite or two of meat. There has to be a happy medium.