Lanterns

I didn’t sleep well on the train. The driver seemed to like slamming on the breaks and the track had a lot more bumps in it so there was lots of jolting. And other passengers talked loudly. Definitely the least comfortable of my overnight trains on this trip. The stretch between Hue and Da Nang is supposed to be the most picturesque train journey in Vietnam. I know from before that it’s an amazing journey over the mountains by road. The train winds around the coast and through some tunnels and I’m sure it’s lovely in the sun but it was raining and the mountains were all in cloud. The sea and sky were almost the same shade of grey. It could have been the Fife coast!

I arrived in Danang around 11.30am and took the bus to Hoi An, about an hour away. I really liked this town when I visited before. It’s grown quite a lot but the old town centre is now a UNESCO world heritage site so that area is protected. It was raining when I arrived but stopped and I went for a walk around to remind myself about the town. 

Every month Hoi An has a lantern festival to coincide with the full moon. It is the most impossible thing to photograph well! The small lanterns (made of coated cardboard with a candle inside) are floated on the river. It’s supposed to bring good luck to release lanterns and there were several couples out in boats to release lots of lanterns to bring good luck to their relationship. My shots were all out of focus. Even with a ridiculously high ISO, I still couldn’t get a fast enough shutter speed to keep the moving boats and lanterns in focus. This was the best I got.

I had dinner in a cafe on the island in the river and by the time I finished the monsoon rain had turned the roads to rivers (the drains can’t cope with heavy rain). I didn’t have a rain jacket or an umbrella with me. After waiting around a while a woman selling raincoats (basically a plastic bag with sleeves and a hood) came past and I bought one so I could leave the cafe. Speaking a little Vietnamese definitely helped me – I repeated the price she told me in Vietnamese and she said ‘oh you speak Vietnamese’ and immediately dropped the price by a third! I didn’t bargain any further since I’d be a drowned rat without the coat!