Advertisement
Published: April 20th 2023
Edit Blog Post
We rose early to bid farewell to the gorgeous Hoi An and caught a Grab to Danang train station for our short (3.5 hour) Journey to Hue. Ev booked a cheap last minute hotel room near the train station online while I engaged with a tour guide to take us on an afternoon village tour the next day. This part of the train journey is famous for being one of the most scenic segments - we will be climbing steeply through the mountains near the Hai Van Pass before hugging cliff tops along deserted parts of the coastline. It was very dramatic!
Arriving in Hue we walked a few mins to the unexpectedly opulent and fancy Silk Grand Hotel (it was very cheap on booking.com!) checked in, hit the pool to rinse off the train dust then hit the pavement to walk to the Imperial Citdel.
In 1802 the Emperor moved the capital from Hanoi to Hue to try and unite the north/south Divide. The Citadel was built between 1804-33 and consists of 2m thick and 10km long walls and an imposing moat. We spent nearly two hours walking and exploring the citadel and it was really impressive
with ornate walled gardens, temples, living quarters for the royal family and military fortifications. I recommend visiting as we did in the late afternoon to avoid the heat! Fortunately you can get ice creams at various locations within the citadel which helped to bolster our flagging energy levels.
Getting hungry and very tired we aimed towards the eating district and haggled with a duo of cyclo (bicycle rickshaws) drivers to take us. This was a really great fun experience and our drivers were full of fun and kept us laughing with their antics. I was quite awed at the physical effort and am very glad this is not my profession!
The next morning we eschewed the $30 US hotel brekkie for $3 Bahn mi And coffee at A street stall Before our guide arrived with bikes for our tour. We were going to ride bikes to several local villages, check out some imperial ruins, eat lunch at an orchard before having a wonderful boat cruise back down the "Perfumed River" to Hue. This was a really wonderful, varied and engaging tour. We loved visiting the deserted elephant temple (the old emperor adopted elephants as his spirit animal and
they are still recognised and offerings made each year on elephant day!) we learnt to make sesame candy, visited a local artisan and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in a local garden. The dragon boat ride home topped it all off beautifully.
Our overnight train didn't leave until 8.50pm so we killed time by visiting the markets, getting a massage and eating at a local street front restauraunt. Finally it was time to board for our 11 hour sleeper train experience. For this segment we upgraded to the privately run Lotus Carriage including nicer beds, free wine and beer and a brekkie pack. All aboard folks! There is something so unique about sleeping on a train - gently rocked by the movement of the carriage. As usual we brought pot noodles for snacks and filled them from the boiling water dispenser in the corridor - quite a perilous undertaking if the train jolts at the wrong time! K loved the novelty of the sleeper carriage and took care to arrange her toys and books on her bunk.
We disembarked at Ninh Binh for a private tour of two local nature areas. First up was Cuc Phuong National Park where
the highlight was visiting the Endangered Primate and Turtle Rescue Centre. Our guide took us through the park showing us all the resident primates who are being rehabilitated after being rescued from the illegal pet, restaurant and traditional medicine trades. We saw the worlds most engangered primate of which there are only 65 left in the world. The centre breeds and also prepares suitable animals for release back into the wild (if they were not too young on arrival). At the turtle park we learned about the most endangered turtle of which there are a only 3 left Alive. I felt really sad and hopeless. One of the main contributors to the potential extinction of rare primates and turtles (and other animals) is the demand from Chinese people for traditional medicine and status meals where the more endangered the creature the more alleged healing properties it possesses or the more prestige from eating it. Very sobering and we were really glad we had visited to make a contribution to their work.
We drove from there to the Puluong Nature reserve through an incredible valley of karst mountains that stretched endlessly in every direction. The intriguing bulbous shapes created an
alien landscape - I am suspecting Halong Bay will be essentially the same sort of terrain but surrounded by water rather than fields. The next two nights we were staying at an eco resort high in the mountains and our journey was a winding path up and through valleys lined with terraces of rice paddies and small thatched roof villages. The views from our room when we arrived were truly breathtaking.
For the next two days we hike, bike and raft across and through the surrounding valley with a local female guide who tells us all about the White Thai ethnic minority people who inhabit this area. The local people live in thatched stilt houses and farm rice - intriguingly the main people living there are school aged children and grandparents - the younger adults often work away in Hanoi to earn money and return to help with the rice harvest and planting.
The views are just incredible here - can’t quite believe the stunning scale of the vistas. Next stop will be Hanoi - will be strange to be back in a big city after such serenity and being immersed in nature.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.326s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 11; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0566s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb