Advertisement
Published: June 21st 2010
Edit Blog Post
DSC00277
Citadel Hue From Hoi An to get on the train you need to travel to Danang. This is about a 30 min taxi drive and is only $12 in a private car. We had booked the same guy that picked us up when we arrived from Nah Trang because he was such a good driver. Well, apparently not everyday! Must have been having an off one. The coastal stretch along China Beach is seeing some major development. Greg Norman is even flogging some Golf Resort Complex and many other international chains have started big projects. They all llok five star and really it is not surprising. There is an international airport at Danang, the beach is awesome and famous and Hoi An is only 1/2 an hour away. A winning combination on all fronts. We will be back I am sure.
We took the afternoon train from Danang to Hue. It is only 2 1/2 hours and 56000 Dong along an amazing piece of coastline. The train track hugs the side of the hill and you look down on some really beautiful beaches. Train was grubby as usual but at least it wasn't for long. At least I can hold the bladder that
DSC00278
Giant Flag pole Hue Citadel long. Train toilets smell like a men's toilet block that hasn't been cleaned for a few years. Not sure why as there is an attendant that is supposed to look after this.
We had added Hue to our itinerary after so many people had raved about it and said it was a must do. This was at the expense of Dal at and it fitted nicely with the train line. Hue is famous for it's Citadel which is still in very good condition considering the amount of bombing that had happened during the War.
I had short listed some hotels that had received consistently good reviews on trip advisor and were within budget. Dumped Lyndon and kids at a cafe and took off on foot. Little did we know that it was the middle of the Hue Festival which is held every 2 years. A five day affair that we had arrived smack in the middle of. Most hotels were full. Yay! Finally found a room in Minh Heiu Hotel in Chu Van An for 15USD night with AC, 2 double beds and cable. Great location and hotel was not flash but was clean.
Hue is situated along the edges
DSC00279
Citadel Hue of the Perfume River which is quite nice to look at and has a great bridge that changes colour at night time. The Vietnamese love there neon.
We had a disgusting Dinner at Missy Roo which left me expecting to spend the night in the bathroom. Hue is supposed to be famous for it's food but we just couldn't find why. In the 2 days we were there we only had 1 really good meal and sadly that was pizza at Little Italy.
Hue was labelled a World Heritage site by Unesco in 1993 as it was the capital of the Nguyen Emperors and the Citadel is a great place to visit. The buildings are not that old ( less than 150yrs) but it is still interesting. But not 2 days worth of interesting for us. We had some more cyclo rides around town for an hour, but it was just incredibly hot. Hue is a cultural centre for Vietnam but I am starting to get Temple and Ruin fatigue and find that I am far more interested in doing and not looking. We were locked into a departure date by our train tickets to Hanoi so on our second
day we hunkered down in our AC room and watched movies. We decided not the visit the DMZ as we had always said that we were not going to focus on War tourism as it is way too hard to explain to the kids. The Vietnam war is hard enough for adults to understand let alone a very curious 6 yr old.Waiting to catch the night train to Hanoi. Another night sleeper and we have booked the 4 berths in a first class soft sleeper. Dreading it after the filth of the last first class sleeper experience but is all paid for.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb