Day 274: Another day, another beach town

This morning we had breakfast across the road again (supplementing our eggs and bread with the first of our anti-malarials – we'll be getting into the Mekong Delta soon) and then checked out. Kate and the girls had managed to bond with the woman who runs the hotel with her husband – she was often in the lobby with her daughter when we came and went – and before we left, she gave us all hugs.

We got a taxi to the train station, which was very small and rather crowded. We managed to score some seats beside an air conditioner, however, which made it all quite a bit more bearable. Kate then headed out to see if she could get some food for lunch, eventually returning with some pork (roast and barbecued), mangoes, lychees and chocolate cake. The train arrived at 11.40am and we all trekked out onto the tracks in search of our carriage. This was the train from Hanoi – it would eventually travel all the way down to Ho Chi Minh City – and it showed. There was quite a bit of litter in the carriage, which was very old and tired and incredibly hot and stuffy (although its age did lend it a certain charm). We sat in the station for some time, the air still and stifling – I didn't dare move lest my body erupt all over in a torrent of sweat. Thankfully, when we got under way, the air conditioning turned on and the journey was reasonably comfortable.

We arrived in the little town of Dieu Tri at 5.30pm and quickly hired a metered taxi to take us to our hotel in Quy Nhon. From what we could see from the taxi, Dieu Tri was pretty basic, so we were a little taken aback by Quy Nhon, which was a bright, shiny, bustling beach town, full of neon and parks and manicured municipal flower displays and beach-front play areas. Our hotel was right at the far end of town, a block or two back from the beach and our room was up on the seventh floor, which was reached via an external glass elevator whose air conditioning had broken, making it feel like we were inside a moving greenhouse.

After dumping our bags in our impressively large room (well, suite, really), we headed down to the beach front in search of some dinner. We found a cool roadside seafood barbecue restaurant with a very friendly waiter, so we sat down and ordered some beers and soft drinks. Kate and I then went up to the business end of the restaurant to see if we could order. After much confusion, we eventually figured out that the barbecue was finished for the night. We had had our hearts set on some grilled seafood, so when the waiter indicated that there was another place down the road, we paid for the drinks and headed that way. It soon became obvious, however, that there wasn't any such barbecue down this way, so we looped back around a large park, from which large numbers of large rats kept emerging onto the pavement ahead of and behind us – and ended up at a restaurant next to where we had just been – but in the other direction. This place did have some barbecues – metal grills over little charcoal braziers – and we had a pretty good meal of grilled prawns and beef ribs while the noisy celebration of a little boy's eighth birthday took place at the adjacent table.