Hoi An

We had a good train ride down from Hanoi to Danang.  The ride was about 16 hours.  For the first 3 hours we shared our compartment with some locals who were not very friendly, then they got of and another couple came in and climbed into their bunks, we were mostly asleep, Alicia did not know there was a change.  This couple was from the Netherlands and we talked to them for a while till they got off in Hue.  We had the place to ourselves the last 3 hours.  We saw mostly farm land the from Hue to Danag it was along the coast and very pretty.  At the train station in Danang we were apporoced by an older man and asked if we needed a ride to Hoi An, so off we went in a private car.  We found out he was a tour guide and had fought for the south in the war.  He liked taking US vets out to tour the old battle grounds.  We ended up saying we would do a day tour with him and his son the next day.  We got to the hotel (Golden Bell Homestay) around 2 which was nice and on the edge of town.  It was a 20 or so minute walk into town.  We were recommended palaestra to eat so we went there and it had great food.  The town was every crowded on the Saterday night and light rain so we were not that impressed.  The next day our guide toke us back up to Danang to Marble Mountian, were in the war the VC hide in cave right near the US bases.  Now the mine marble there and have a bunch of Butist shrines.   From there we went by an old Air Force base and to Monkey Mountian that overlooked Danang and had a bunch of radar stuff there during the war. From there to the top of the pass that leads to Hue with its old fortification.  Then further north to the coast to eat seafood in a small village.  The seafood there was real good and people from both Danang and Hue came to eat there.  After that we went inland to one of the branches of the Ho Chi Minh trail (the supply line for the NVA and VC) and a water fall park. Then back to the Homestay. The next morning we went for a cooking class with the Waterwheel Organic farm.  They picked us up on bicycles and we rode to the local marked to buy some food the rode out to their place out side of town about 2 miles.  The farm grows vegetables next to a bunch of other small farms.  We had fun cooking 4 courses, 3 friends, fish,    Papaya salad and Vietnamese pancakes. Then rode back to town and walked into town again, this time it was much quieter. Mom did some shopping as there are a lot of tourist shops here including tailors.  The next day we were picked up for our ride to the airport at 9 am for our 1055 flight only to find out it was cancelled and we were reschedualled to 430 pm.  It was a long day on the way to Ho Chi Minh City.