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After experiencing both the "hard sleeper" and a standing overnight train in China, I was really looking forward to our overnight "soft sleeper" ride to Huế (pronounced "way") from Hanoi. I wasn't disappointed. With only four soft beds to a compartment, we had an incredibly peaceful night. Our bunkmates were a couple of French guys who could speak English well enough for us to have some decent conversations. (We tried to speak some French but it was kind of pitiful). We slept through the night and arrived at Huế at around 8 o'clock in the morning.
At the train station, we were immediately greeted by about five taxi drivers who were all desperate to take us to our hotel. Unfortunately, we weren't very confident that any of them actually knew where our hotel was so we decided to take a break in the train station waiting area for a few minutes. Luck was on our side. A few minutes later, a man approached us and asked if we needed help. He told us to call our hotel to get them to pick us up, and suggested that we buy tickets to the next town now as they book up quickly.
Doors
Ryan hanging out in one of the gardens at the Citadel. He then helped us buy our ticket to Hoi An, which cost us only a couple of dollars. Ryan gave him a small tip (less than a dollar Canadian) and he was absolutely floored. In Hanoi, we learned that the average person makes around 200,000 Vietnamese Dong a month, which is the equivalent to $12.50 Canadian. Tipping isn't expected here- people seem to be really appreciative and surprised when we do tip.
The Citadel in Hue is one of the best things I've seen on this trip. It takes up about ten square kilometers of land and has ten different entrances. In the early 1800's it was a forbidden city where only emperors, concubines, and eunichs were granted access. The punishment for trespassing was death! We arrived there at around 3 pm and spent around two and a half hours there. We probably could have spent more time wandering around-there were so many different buildings, ruins, and gardens- and it seemed to be completely deserted. A lot of it was damaged in 1968 during the Vietnam war, which is really unfortunate. Some of the buildings looked like they used to be pretty spectacular.
We spent our second day
in Huế being completely lazy. We figured we walked between twenty and twenty five kilometers the day we visited the Citadel and we deserved a break. For about two dollars Canadian each, we could lie by a deserted pool at a nearby four star hotel. For twelve dollars each, we got one hour massages and access to the spa's whirlpool, sauna and steamroom. It was such a relaxing day but we both got incredibly burned. The sun in Vietnam is way hotter than anything I've ever experienced.
Yesterday we left Huế for Hoi An. It took us about three hours to get here by bus in the morning. It's a much smaller town and is about a ten minute drive to the ocean. After checking in to our hotel, we rented a scooter and drove out to the ocean. There aren't as many scooters here so it was pretty safe- there's no way on earth I'd get on a scooter in Hanoi. The water here is clear but you have to watch out for the jellyfish- we saw about three while we were swimming.
Today we took a bus to Mỹ Sơn. It was the site of religious
ceremony for the kings of the Champa dynasty back in the 4th century, and was also a burial place of Champa royals and national heroes. The Mỹ Sơn temple complex is supposed to be one of the foremost temple complexes of Hinduism in South East Asia and is the foremost heritage site of it's nature in Vietnam. We'd heard it was comparable to other temple complexes like Angkor Wat in Cambodia so we thought we'd give it a shot.
It probably would have been a bit more enjoyable if it hadn't been 42 degrees celcius plus humidity. On top of that, most of the ruins were crumbled beyond recognition- they were literally ruined. I think after seeing the Citadel in Huế, it was hard to feel impressed with these piles of bricks. After walking around the ruins, we grabbed a boat back into Hoi An. It was really relaxing and the breeze was awesome after walking around in the sun all day.
Tonight we're taking a night bus to Nha Trang. We've seen photos of the bus- it's a double decker bus with seats that fully recline. It even has a sit down toilet! We'll arrive at 6am
Cherry Cafe
Ryan enjoying the crazy house beats at cherry cafe at 8am. tomorrow morning. Nha Trang is right on the ocean and we booked a hotel two minutes from the beach. I think we'll probably stay there a few days to take a break from all of these overnight trains and busses.
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loving this...
What an outstanding writer and photographer you are!! I feel like I'm traveling with you. I can't wait to read the updates..Have fun.