Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

When we were finally able to leave Hanoi we took an overnight bus to Hue. The bus was a good experience. It was clean and a newer style bus than our previous overnight bus experience in China. I slept well.

We arrived in Hue on schedule and were impressed by the town – we were only there a few hours mind you – and enjoyed the relaxed pace compared to Hanoi. We had a good breakfast at a little restaurant and used their washroom to freshen up by washing our faces and brushing our teeth. No one ever questions why I am taking my toiletries with me to a restaurant. A lot of times the restaurant owner also lives on sight and it is common to have a showerhead in the washroom. So far I haven’t taken advantage of a restaurant shower but I think it is a great idea.

We were followed to the restaurant by a pair of motorcycle ‘taxis’ that were ready to take us to the train station so we could continue our journey to Da Nang en route to Hoi An. We had yet to take the motos so we negotiated a price and took off with all of our stuff on a pair. We arrived at the station with just enough time to wait. Wait time is important so you can figure out where you need to go and when, and to make sure you have enough water and snacks – and sometimes to experience the public washrooms before starting a long journey.

The Hue train station is very nice. It looks like a train station you would see in a movie where people would be saying tearful goodbyes sending their sons and daughters off to college or war. The tracks from Hue to Da Nang wind along the hills near the shore and the scenery was a big part of why we chose to use the train for this section.

I was leafing through our guidebook as I generally do on ‘travel’ days and stumbled across Hoa’s Place listed on China Beach which is about halfway between Da Nang and Hoi An. We were craving some beach time so changed our plans to stop off for a day or two.

Again we were greeted by a chorus of ‘Hello, Motorcycle’. If you’ve ever been to Vietnam you know they want to either take you for a ride on their motorcyle or rent one to you. If it is your first time you may begin to wonder if everyone thinks you are a motorcycle. We hopped on the back of a couple of knock off Easy Riders (Google: Easy Riders Vietnam) and made our way out to Hoa’s Place.

When we arrived there were lots of people in the restaurant area so we asked about the accomodations and got good reports. Hoa overheard us and said ‘Check out the beach then we’ll talk business’. I could tell by the way he said it that the beach would be enough to win us over so we just checked in sight unseen. The rooms are fine – nothing fancy, kind of like a 1970’s decor cottage – everything you need is there and you won’t notice any of it after you’ve been down to the beach.

China Beach was used by American soldiers for some R&R during the war. It is a spectacular stretch of white sand for about 30kms. Right now there is an average of about 6 people on the beach at any given time. Lots of people stop by for a quick dip but not many people stay for the whole day. If you want to experience it like that you will have to go quickly though as there are at least a dozen massive beach resorts under construction on either side of Hoa’s Place.

Hoa keeps things simple and relaxed even though I assume he is feeling some pressure from the other resorts. During your stay you are in charge of your own tab – the fridge is always open and you just help yourself and write it down in the book, same for meals and laundry service, etc. It was refreshing for us to be back on the honour system. We felt so at home that we ended up staying twice as long as we had intended.