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Published: August 28th 2005
Wednesday (I think...)
I settled myself into my 4 berth, air conditioned sleeper destined for Hue. I was sharing with a Vietnamese family of 4. Mum and Dad worked for the Vietnamese Governement and spoke almost fluent English, their 7 yr old son could speak and pronounce better english than what I could, and their 2 yr old son who was just sooooo cute... (he couldnt speak english, but we'll let him off cos he couldnt speak Vietnamese either!)
I had THE BEST nights sleep on the train ever! Until I was woken at 6am by some wailing Vietnamese woman's singing being piped through the speakers!
We were served Beef noodles for breakfast (hey... I'll eat anything at any hour... not fussy!) Well, it was kinda like a pot noodle. There was a big tank of boiling water at the end of the carriage which you could use to re-hydrate your noodles... and it was surprisingly tasty!
We arrived in Hue at about 10.30 am. I was immediately accosted by tonnes of taxi drivers, hotel sales men, etc etc… but my Knight in shining armour soon arrived… Mr. Café Pho (that wasn’t his real name obviously, but for the purposes of this blog that I was I will refer to him as because he owned a café by the same name just opposite the station!) Mr. Café Pho listened to where I wanted to go and how I planned to go about it. He then helped me to book a train ticket to Danang for the next day and a bus ticket from Danang to Hoi An. He then suggested that I stay in Hue for the night and have a look around, but didn’t try to sell me anything!? I was slightly suspicious of Mr. Café Pho, but just said thank you for his help and then left on a bike to find a hotel.
I was dropped off at a hotel on the main street and after having looked at the room decided that it would be ok for just one night. However,.... when getting off the bike I burnt my leg on the exhaust... Doh! That won't make for a good tan... never mind! Once settled into the room I went out to look around town but was pestered by the motorbike driver round the streets wanting to take me for a tour of the town and its sights (I knew that some of the sights were out of town but I wasn't all that fussed on seeing all of them... like I say, if you've seen one pagoda, you've seen them all!!!) Managed to shake off the bike rider eventually,... well, I was hardly going to get back on the bike after I'd burnt my leg was I!? Whilst wandering around I came across a chap called Wayne from New Zealand, he too was being pestered by a bike rider, and was looking for an escape route,… Clare to the rescue!
We took a stroll down the banks of the perfume river (its far from appealing to the senses!) and across to the Forbidden Purple city which was where the emperor (king and queen maybe?!) lived many years ago! (and I'm not sure why its called the 'purple' city, but Wayne thought it might have something to do with the trees that were inside the walls, they apparently flower purple?!) Wayne chose not to come in but come back another day with his wife. I stepped inside, and was amazed by how 'palatial' it looked, all very grand. As you entered there was a big pond that you walked across and in the pond were some HUGE fish... just like fishy wishy, but much much bigger! The forbidden purple city was very nice, and I took lots of photos of the ruins etc, but it was waaaay too hot to enjoy it properly. So took a wander up the road to a Pagoda... where I think I saw a Vietnamese Buddist/Buddah (what should I call them?) they were wearing long brown coat type things... very odd in this heat I thought... had to be something to do with the religion!?
Still very hot in Hue... so walked back to the hotel... past the market, which was very interesting, and very smelly with all the food in the heat!
Went out for something to eat that night in a lovely little restaraunt where the waiter could speak NO english, so just pointed at something on the menu and prayed for the best! Was pleasantly surprised when salty pork and rice turned up... v.tasty, and again, with a drink or two it all came to no more than 2 English Pounds!
Stopped at a pharmacy on the way home to get some cream for my burn (UPDATE...burn seems to be doing ok, no infection so far, just not looking very attractive, but seems to be a talking point!)
Friday 26th
Got up and packed in sufficient time to get down to the station. Where I was met by Mr Cafe Pho! He took me to a seat that he'd saved for me in the waiting room and then when the train arrived, he made sure that I got on at the right carriage... awww... and he hadn't even wanted me to buy anything from him! Big thank you to Mr. Cafe Pho!
On the train to Danang... sat in luxury again! Had a reclining seat in an air conditioned carriage, was served a meal at my chair and had a superb view out of the window all the way!
Arrived in Danang about 1.15pm and decided to walk to the tourist office (following the map that Mr. Café Pho had given me) where the bus would pick me up in a couple of hours. Well,… I searched the road high and low, but still couldn’t find the tourist office… (damn Mr. Cafe Pho!) I asked the locals (who spoke exceptional english… I was v. impressed!), I even went into a hotel and asked there, and they rang the tourist office for me and said that I was on the right street and it was here somewhere… still after about an hour and a half of searching I was getting very hot and stressed, and still had my back pack on!… so I resorted to asking a taxi driver to take me…still didn’t trust taxi drivers… but he took me the 1.5km down the road to where I needed to be… tada… there it was! I was so relieved, I nearly blimmin kissed the taxi driver! (but did manage to restrain myself in my hysterical condition!) I then had a couple of hours to fill in, so after a refreshing lemon juice drink I decided to go change some money. Now a trip to change money wouldn’t normally warrant a mention, but this one does… went to the Vietcom bank… supposedly very good service. Gave the nice lady, in the lovely air conditioned room my travelers cheque and she asked me for my passport… all ok so far. Then she told me that the signatures didn’t match up… eh?! So I had to practice my signature on another piece of paper… then she took it away and asked someone else. Came back and said that it still didn’t match… sorry, so slightly stressed and somewhat getting to the end of my tether at this point, I gave her all tickets with my name on, some spare passport photos that I had, my debit and credit cards with my signatures on… she looked at them, then went away again…(ok, so I was looking somewhat different to my passport photo,... I was hot, bothered, hadn't done my hair and had no make up on... even my own father probably would have had to do a double take!(no offence dad!)). 5 mins later she came back and said that it was ok for me to sign it and have my money… phew… but what a palava!
Eventually, the bus arrived for Hoi An, and when I got on I noticed that Becky, Jo and Florence (the girls that had saved me in Hanoi the first day, and were on my boat back from Halong Bay, and were staying in the same hotel as me in Hanoi) were also on the bus!!!
Arrived in Hoi An at about 6pm. We were dropped at a lovely hotel, but it was out of my price range, so the 4 of us set off to find another hotel. I managed to find one right in town that was decent enough and at a good rate.
Once settled in and showered etc I headed out down the road to find somewhere to eat… I chose a restaurant on a corner overlooking the river (what I could see of it in the dark!) and had one of the local specialities… flat noodles with prawns in a soup with mint leaves… so soooo tasty, washed down with lemon juice drink!!! The waitress wanted to practice her english, so I spent the next two hours chatting away to her and her friend who was also learning english (But who already spoke very good english… his most practiced phrase seemed to be “you are very beautiful”,… he now understands the phrase… “oh shut up, you are such a charmer!”)
Saw the girls walk past and joined them for a drink in a local bar… Tam Tams… the place was nice enough, loud music, and lots of westeners… (not what I would call a ‘cultural’ outing) but good to get out. I had a lemon juice again (think I’m getting addicted to the sugar!!!) (No alcohol… sorry ste, nothing much to report in the “Gofton Drinking column”! the alcohol seems to affect me more here,… think it’s the heat… I know I’m not a lightweight!)
Had a lovely evening, and really like the place (well, what I’ve seen of it in the dark!) am thinking of staying here for a good couple of days! Better dash and enjoy the sunshine! I promise to put some photos up soon... when I find a computer from this century!!!
Hope that you are all well,
Clare xx
Oh yeah, meant to say the other day when I was wandering around Hanoi, there was a lovely couple who were looking at a map... just like me... lost again! but we got talking and although they had scottish accents they were now living in Australia,... I said, "Oh, I'm going to be in Aus in about 3 months" and they said,... "hey, here's our address in the blue mountains just outside Sydney, if you fancy a good bed and some home cooking, don't hesitate to pop in and see us!'... you know what, I might just do that! how sweet!
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Helen
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Hi clarebear, certainly sounds like you're enjoying Vietnam! Hope you are ok. Keep the journals coming, v. entertaining! Had a very big slice of cake at a Garden Party today and thought of you! heehee! Helen xxxx