Banh Mi for breakfast
Today we had a train to Phan Thiet booked. This destination was a few hours to the East, and is situated on the coast. We were hoping for a bit of a cool down period, after having had a crazy month in China. The day started off with us checking out of the hostel. For breakfast we went to get another Banh Mi, from the same place as before. Again, it was so delicious. Spicy, but delicious. We think it may be a herb in the baguette that’s causing the spice.
As were finishing off our breakfasts, I ordered another Grab taxi to take us to the train station. The roads here are always hectic as hell; I’d hate to have to traverse in this traffic. At the same time, I bet it’s pretty fun though. We arrived at the train station and were astonished at the difference compared to China’s train stations. This station was almost deserted. Extremely quiet and desolate. It was a weird feeling to be able to enter the train station without having to scan our bags, or go through security at all. We were able to print our tickets off easily enough from a kiosk here.
Tip!
In China, my go to train booking service was booking.com. However, they don’t sell train tickets for South East Asia. Instead, in several situations, I used 12Go Asia, click here for the website. This allows you to easily search your location, and the destination. It will then give you the different modes of transports, times, and prices. A lot of the South East Asian countries have poor railways. Buses are a lot more common and useful, we found.
To the beach
Although security wasn’t as tight in Vietnamese train stations, we still made sure to arrive with plenty of time. We didn’t have too long to wait until the train to Phan Thiet arrived though. It was relatively straight forward to board the train, we just walked out of the station and on to the train. Simple as that. The security and formalities of the train station were quite lacking compared to China, as were the trains themselves. They left a lot to be desired. Our train to Phan Thiet was very basic, a bit run down, and the air con didn’t function it seemed. To check out my first Asian train experience, click here.
The best part of the journey was definitely the scenery. It’s always great when the sun is shining on the mountains and lush greenery. After a 4-hour train journey, we arrived in a small village called Binh Thuan, outside of Phan Thiet. It was pitch black outside, and nothing but a hoard of taxi drivers, squawking at the passengers. We had failed to account for the fact that this train station was over 10 miles away from our hostel, or indeed the town. In addition to this news, there was no chance of a Grab taxi in these parts. It was simply too remote. Instead, we had to admit defeat and go with a taxi driver to Phan Thiet. We didn’t have enough cash, so we told him to drive us to the ATM
Tip!
In hindsight, my advice is to make sure to carry a reserve of money. It doesn’t have to be much, just enough for a taxi ride. We thought we’d get off the train and straight into a Grab taxi. However, Grab doesn’t seem to operate in remote places, so take this into account. Also take into account the time of day that you’ll arrive in that location. It was rather late, so normal services weren’t operating.
A frustrating disaster
The taxi driver dropped us off at an ATM in the town. We withdrew our cash, paid him, and he was on his way. His taxi was too expensive to go straight to the hostel (which was still several miles away). Instead we tried to find a Grab taxi or a bus that’d take us close to our hostel. However, after walking for 20 minutes or so, we were getting nowhere. Frustration began to set in. Eventually we just had to take another taxi. This ended up being slightly more expensive than if we’d stayed with the first driver.
Our hostel was on a long stretch of road. Once we were on this road, I thought I was seeing things. All of a sudden, every person on the street was white and in holiday gear. There was an abundance of resorts and restaurants. I was spinning out for a bit, I wasn’t sure what had happened, or where we’d come to. It felt like I was in touristy area of Spain. What a difference a mere mile made.
Sleeping by the sea
We checked into our hostel. This turned out to be very nice, and spacious. Our hostel was called Tropic Hostel and Restaurant, you can find more details about it here. As we were slightly tired of today, we decided to just eat at the hostel. The food was very nice to be honest. After we chatted and called it a day, I called my Indonesian friend, Elva. We ended up speaking for several hours, she was trying to teach me a few words of Bahasa Indonesia, which was fun. I ended up going to bed at around 2am. Tomorrow was definitely starting with a lie in.
