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Published: June 14th 2013
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Hue, pretty much the epicentre of the Vietnam war, and the ancient capital, I was apprehensive about coming here. We had had various reports from people we'd encountered so far of how they didn't really like it, but I brushed these off, thinking, "We're not the average backpackers". As usual I was right. It was utterly lovely, despite the unpleasantness of the journey there. There are 6 beds per cabin and we were in “Hard Sleeper AC” class. The bunks weren't the most comfy thing in the world, but were serviceable enough. No the main problem was our fellow passengers. The first people to share our cabin were a middle aged Vietnamese couple. From the beginning of the journey the man was playing some Vietnamese pop music out of the speakers on his phone, which his wife later started singing along to in a screechy voice. We let this slide as it was only 7.30, and we could drown it out watching things on the laptop. They go off a few stops later to our relief, but were replaced to our horror with a mother and her small child. Fortunately the child was well behaved, but something very peculiar started happening.
Every so often one of the guards would come in and start playing with the child, then would lift him down from the bunk and disappear off into the train returning about half an hour later. This happened several times with different guards, each time disturbing our sleep. The mother meantime was either asleep, or didn't care about the abduction of her child by strange men. The final straw came at around 4 am when some very loud music came blasting in from the corridor outside. I snapped. I marched outside to find the culprit, who was a short, fat, but well dressed Vietnamese man. I indicated to him that unless the music stopped, the portable speaker he was using would be inserted in him, and he would be hurled bodily from the train. The music stopped.
Upon arrival at the train station, we evaded the clutches of the parasitic taxi drivers with surprising ease, perhaps it was our training in India coming through again. Even better, we got to our hotel at less than the driver initially said. Andrew and Amelia 1, Hue 0. So good were our spirits that we decided to go on a wander around
the old city and explore despite the huge heat and horrendous humidity. It was all very lovely, as we wandered around the old citadel, there were actually surprisingly few reminders of the war. As we headed back to our hotel, we came across a shopping centre, and bought dinner and a few other bits for a mere 50000VND (£1.56). Excellent.
The next morning we went on one of the hotels guided tours around the ancient citadel, the imperial tombs, and a pagoda, all for less than for the price of a taxi to just one. Andrew and Amelia 2, Hue 0. The Citadel was first, then the Perfume Pagoda. This was our first encounter with some real live Buddhist monks, not like the fake one who fleeced us in Ipoh in Malaysia. They were all on their daily march around the temple, chanting. It was very interesting, and peaceful and nice to see, but wandering around a statue,mumbling wasn't my idea of spirituality, so I went around the gardens instead. Next were the 4 tombs, for the most significant Nguyen dynasty Emperors. All very interesting and lovely, but make poor reading matter, so I'll gloss over them. There was
also the garden house of one of the Mandarins. These were advisors to the emperors, and the houses were all now owned by a sour faced woman who was a descendant of one of the last Mandarins. This didn't seem very communist to me, giving 30 houses to 1 woman with no family and a guaranteed income from all the tours passing through. But it seemed rude to enquirer and I fear Vietnamese prison. Nevertheless ownership of 30 houses is theft.
Whilst on the tour we met an Australian couple, Chris and Paula, got chatting and agreed to got out to dinner later. We agreed to meet at the night food market, and went to freshen up. We arrived at the agreed time, but no Chris and Paula. As we were waiting, a young American couple passed by looking at us inquisitively, then walked past us again and said "You aren't by any chance waiting for some Australians for dinner are you?" Bemused, admitted that this was the case, fearing some sort of scam. However there was nothing to fear, as they were staying at the same hostel and had also been invited, so we all went along and
had a lovely time. I had barbecued mackerel, in diy spring rolls, and Amelia had squid, which was even more delicious than my mackerel. After dinner, we went back to their hostel for some free beer. Sadly though, we had to cut short our evening to Skype my parents. Damn.
The next morning we left Hue for Hoi An on the bus in buoyant spirits, hoping for even more lovelyness. I would recommend a visit to Hue, don't listen to other people!
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