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Published: August 7th 2007
Our 12 hour overnight journey on the Reunifcation Express was spent in a soft sleeper cabin (ie 4 small bunk beds with matresses and skanky bed clothes) with a nice couple who had lots of tips on travelling around India and China, something we have been thinking about doing recently. The train was a lot more expensive than the bus but we had been told that the Hanoi to Hue leg by bus was a nightmare and besides for the rest of our travelling down to Ho Chi Minh we would be travelling by bus anyway and we thought the train would be fun and a change from buses.
We managed to get some sleep during the night so the train journey went fast and we woke up to be given free instant noodles for breakfast. We have to say that the hardest part of the journey was going to the squat toilet. Have you ever tried squatting whilst being jostled around by a bumpy train moving side to side and up and down and keeping your trousers off the wet floor...it took great skill not to wee on yourself!! We arrived at 8:30am (thankfully not smelling of wee),
dodged the typical annoying taxi touts and walked a 1.5 km distance to the budget area of Hue (pronounced Who-ay). It was Neil's turn to go hunting for accommodation and this time he came up trumps by not finding us a room in a brothel...must be the first time ever! The room had air con, cable tv, fridge, balcony and everything for just $8. It was a bargain, however, there was a strange stalker lad on reception who seemed to know everything about us without us even meeting him...he'd obviously been studying our passports!
It became obvious quite soon that the locals don't get very large numbers of tourists here, judging by the friendliness of the locals and the few restaurants and bars catering to tourists. However we only decided to stay one day in Hue and so we quickly set off to walk to the Citadel, an Imperial City built 200 years ago which is another UNESCO World Heritage site. What interested Donna about the citadel was that Lonely Planet had mentioned it had a Forbidden Purple city (Donna loves all things purple). The citadel was impressive but had been heavily bombed by the Americans so there were
few buildings left standing. The Forbidden City wasn't very purple either but it was worth a visit. On exiting the Citadel we did walk past a Vietnamese lad who's reaction when he saw us was to say 'WOW' in a really loud voice...they really don't get many Western tourists here!
On our way to the Citadel we came across a graveyard for tanks and artillery guns from the Vietnam (or American) war, whichever your perspective, which all had a sign in front of them saying they had been equipped to the American and 'puppet soldiers'...we aren't really sure what puppet soldiers are, we were half expecting Kermit the Frog in military uniform to jump out from behind the tanks. On the way back to our hotel Neil heard what he thought was a particularly squeaky motorbike only to realise it was 3 small pigs in a basket fighting whilst strapped to the seat of the bike...just one of your many random sights you see with how the Vietnamese treat their animals. No we aren't particular animal lovers but some of the things the Vietnamese do with their animals is just plain wrong!
The next morning we got a
A sign next to a tank
just who were these puppet soldiers? We never saw any at the theatre in Hanoi?$2 ticket for a 4 hour bus journey south to Hoi-An, what we had been told was shopping heaven...Donna was very excited!
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