Once we arrived in Danang, we quickly petitioned the train conductors to extend our trip. They asked an exorbitant amount of money, twice as much as the stationmaster asked to issue a regular ticket once we got off the train. On the railroad, foreigners pay an undisclosed multiple of what locals do, just for the privilege of being foreigners, though condemned to the same facilities and degree of “service with a smile” locals enjoy. Indian trains are positively luxurious, compared with the 2 different Vietnamese ones we ended up taking. The seating options being hard sleeper (a couchette, bunk of 3 in room of 6), soft seat (a regular seat) or hard seat (standing, with possibility of being issued a plastic kindergarten stool, if available), and only soft seat being available on the train we had arrived in Danang on, while sleepers were available on the next train (leaving Danang at 3.30 AM) we decided to have some dinner and drinks on the station plaza, while waiting the 4 hours between trains.

Danang didn’t seem particularly welcoming or warm, it was easy to forgo Hoi An, which I would have liked to see and I thought would be a highliht of my trip. But when not being well received in a country that doesn’t seem to have much to offer, I find it hard to become interested in its cultural heritage enough to make an effort to suffer further to visit key sites. Eventually, we found even nice, communicative fellow local passengers, the further South we proceeded and I empathize with the misery of the Vietnamese People and their history of 20 centuries of domination and liberation struggles, but I personally did nothing to be treated with such widespread, unprovoked hostility as I experienced in North Vietnam.