Wrong side of the tracks

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I got out of Hoi An.

And into Hue! This used to serve as the capital of Vietnam during the days when it ruled by Nguyen dynasty emporors and contains a large citadel and several royal tombs. It turned out these were a bit of a dissapointment and probably only worthwhile if you were really into Vietnamese imperial history. The tomb I went to (belonging to Tu Duc) had some quite nice buildings (although the admission fee was extortionate considering what was there. It turned out to be the emporor's private palace during his life as well as containing the tombs of his Empress and adopted son. It would have been a lot better if it had given you more information about the history rather than signs saying 'Mandarin Guardhouse' or 'This was where the emporor liked to write poetry'. Frankly, the whole thing meant nothing to me.

So Hue was disappointing in a sightseeing sense (most people seem to agree on this) but I thought that the city itself was quite nice- not too big, not too small, nice riverside park, a lot of small, friendly cafes and bars to meet people in, so I stayed for an extra day and took a break from the whole sightseeing thing. It's nice to be able to do that once in a while.

I'd heard that the long bus trip to Hanoi was pretty bad so I thought I'd try taking the train this time, as I'd heard that Vietnamese trains were pretty good for such a poor country. I booked a hard sleeper on a train leaving Hue and arriving at Saigon at a sensible time (it shaves a few dollars off the ticket and I didn't mind hard beds as long as I was horizontal). The two English girls who I had met before on Hoi An and who happened to be in my train cabin said that even hard beds in Vietnamese trains were surprisingly plush with lots of room. Unsurpsisingly, this was not the case: previously they'd been on a deluxe new train but this one was very old with smelly sheets, food which consisted of cold noodles being given out periodically, cramped conditions and lights which you could not turn off. The best sleep I got was five minutes before we got there. The joys of travel in the developing world!

Anyway, Hanoi: it's not too bad. More later.

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