Rain Rain Rain

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Time to try out the Vietnam sleeper trains for size, we travelled overnight from Hanoi to Hue in a 4 berth compartment (no seats here) on ‘soft’ sleeper beds, a hard sleeper must be made of cold steel because that’s the only thing harder than what we slept on! Luckily a duvet was provided which we used as a mattress and after the Halong Bay trip we were very tired and had a bit of a cold coming on so we actually slept very well.

There had been lot of recent flooding and enroute we saw the extent of it, outside the train the world looked like a marsh land and it continued to rain for most of the journey. We were grateful to arrive only three hours late in Hue where we spent a a couple of quiet evenings breaking up the journey onwards by bus to Hoi An.

Hoi An is a very touristy but quaint, colonial town, which people visit to have cheap clothes tailored and eat at the many restaurants on the river front. We relaxed there for a few days eating in restaurants, we had planned to hire bikes and explore the town, but the rain saw an end to that and one evening we watched the road outside our hotel turn into a river! Jim did manage to go for a run to a nearby beach and discovered that it was the same one from the Top Gear Vietnam special which they rode motorbikes on.

We had intended to take the train to Ho Chi Minh City, but all trains south were cancelled due to further flooding so we had the treat of flying instead.

Love to you all
Jim and Carla
xxx

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