Horner travels ... Of all the pages in a book, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport...

Went to Tailor and the two pieces first ordered were perfect - the last halter neck top had to be adjusted in places - but they took off on their moto and were back in hour - showing a bit too much cleavage so put in a few more stitches while on and we were ready to head out of town. Walked out of town to the local bus depot - had read in LP they charge double for foreigners - the first price we were given, as they tried to physically take our backs and push us onto an alreday full sunflower yellow minibus, was 4 times the local - we ended up getting it for around half which was 50 cents more than them but we accepted that and took the crazy 1 hour trip to Danang. As passengers hopped on and off the bus hardly stopped determined not to waiste a second. When we entered Danang we siad "Train, Train" and they dropped us off close to our destination and gave us a bit of time to organise ourselves although they made us stand the last 5 minutes prepareed to jump. We did get a seat all the wasy as they shuffled others around to treat us a little better for the extra money and the locals didn't seem to mind. At Danang we were hoping to book an overnight trip to our next destination but the train was full. As it getting darker we looked for a nearby hotel and ended up next to the Station in an overpriced run down hotel run by an American-Vietnamese woman who thoiught she had the Sheraton in her control despit the alaged pond, the crumbling paint and spider webbed walls and the grungy plumbing system. We were about to leave when they put the price down and included buffet b/fast which sounded good as we could fill up before our train trip. After using the loo in our bathroom I flooded the floor - called reception and after it was inspected we were "upgraded" to another room that was basically the same but with an empty attached living room that we wouldn't use - well Nimah did as she scooted around ona foot stool on wheels and had a whoopy time. In the morning we noticed our new bathroom was also flooding but we couldn't be bothered telling them as we noticed the same in their foyer bathroom with towels packed under the sink! Went for a walk but it was a weird place - no character although everyone was very friendly and stopping the kids constantly to touch their hair. We couldn't find anywhere to have dinner in this modern depressing city (4th biggest her in V/Nam) so we went back to our hotel where we'd seen the menu was in US dollars and exy so went to the bank and then 3 more and couldn't get any money out!. Had bought paintings and other things that day as well as pay for train trip and accomodation and we finally realised we'd used our limit which were told was $100 AUD but in V/Nam was actually less than a third of that! So with a few US dollar notes we went to the overstaffed diner for dinner and ordered two of the cheapest meals on the menu to share - luvkily noone was starving! We had small plates of very tasteless fried rice but it helped fill the belly. Breaksfast unfortunately wasn't any better. As this was a hotel for Vietnamese conferences and no Westerners here it was set up for the local diet of way too many processed rice snacks - all tasteless to me or not to my liking with sweet and sour flavours - a bit like the bikkies I bought as a snack that looked like shortbread but tasted like sugar and smoked pork - didn't work for me! I mainly had french read rolls and a couple of coffees. Meandered down to the river hoping to find a nicer area of Danang but apart from lovely stone sculptures using local marble nothing was interestimng. It's just a dfirty sad old town with nothing for the traveller. Packed up at hotel and hung around the hotel for a few hours before hanging out at the station for a few hours and then onto our overnight train to Hanoi on a soft seat - recliner with blanket provided and small table for food etc. There were no other Westerners in our carriage - I think they all paid the extra dollars for a bed in a sleeper. The kids slept well after we were force fed local snacks by the surrounding passengers- we enjoyed many quail eggs dipped ina  pink and whiote salt blend - will look out for these as they were a delicious-pop-in mouth- snack. Adrian and I worried about bags and not being able to comfortable on the seats made for people around 5 foot didn't have much of a nap.