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Published: August 9th 2007
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Well, I was right about us being lulled into a false sense of security....our third night train in four nights was not as comfy as its predecessors. I'm talking shabby cabin, dirty beige walls and dubious bed covers. AND there was no little men popping their head in every few minutes to furnish us with refreshments. Harsh, way harsh. Sibby and Claud were brave enough to venture as far as the "food carriage" at the far end of the train, and did manage to come back alive, with a few beers and dry bread. Beers have become a necessity to get through the night train experience. No mammy, I promise I'm not getting hammered, but a few cans of Tiger definitely make it easier to sleep.
We all nearly hopped off at the wrong stop the next morning, due to sleepy confusion (Maco and Shazza, it had the potential to be Cesky Krumlov: Part 2!), but luckily we didn't, and arrived in Hue at about half eight. Much more respectable than 5.30am, I should add. A taxi man with great english, who didn't even try to rip us off (always a treat) dropped us to our hotel, where we were greeted
by extremely smiley staff. The hotel was lovely, as was Hue.
That afternoon, we decided to have our first beach adventure, and hired a taxi to take us the 20 minutes or so out to Hue's beach. And good lord, wasn't it quite an experience....... It's never a great feeling when you are the ONLY non-locals in a beach type situation. Add to that the fact that we were the only white people, the only women in bikinis (they were practically wearing polo necks!), and probably the owners of the largest boobs to ever grace Hue, and you can imagine what sort of spectacle we caused! It was hilarious, if not more than a little strange. People were stopping and pointing at us on our towels, children were laughing and I actually got a thumbs up from some dirty old bloke beside us!!! Then I decided (I was obviously in a very defiant mood) that I was going to go for a walk down the beach,and I'm not kidding, local children were literally running along side me! What a bizarre bizarre couple of hours.
That night we had promised ourselves a proper session, and oh we did deliver, although it
proved to be quite a difficult task in sleepy Hue. Myself and Sibs nearly DIED with joy when I noticed there was an Indian restuarant listed in the Lonely Planet, and sure wasn't it only up the road from our hotel (eagle eye Sherlock spotted the place). There's little in this world that makes me happier than garlic naan. I ordered some spinach dish,and was a little disturbed when it arrived out looking like slurry, but the whole thing was gorgeous. Mmmmmmmmmmm, wish I was eating it right now. So, if you're ever in Hue do pop in to Omar's! One of the waitresses told us how to get to a bar about 15 minutes walk away, and while it wasn't exactly happening (a pool table and a few rickety chairs), it was our only option! Turned into a good night, and ended with a world class singing session from none other than Sabrina Leona Lewis Sherlock in our hotel room!
We didn't get up to a whole lot else in Hue, just stayed two nights,but on our last morning I went in search of the Old city, and it turns out the Lonely Planet is good for something! The
whole place was fab, it's basically the ancient city enclosed by a moat and old city walls. A little river running outside was covered in lilly pads, and inside there was little red lanterns hanging from all the trees. The admission price was a bit steep, but I really just enjoyed strowling around through the old ruins and there was a few more complete buildings housing paintings and trinkets and what not. Twas lovely!
So, after my active little morning, we took a bus to Hoi An. We were picked up at our hotel, which SOUNDS great, except so was everyone else, so you tend to spend 45 minutes going round dodgy narrow bends in a bus built for streets a lot wider, before you even leave the city. But leave we did, and the journey was grand, even if it was an hour longer than promised. We stopped half way for a quick food/toilet break, and oh lord, it has been quite a while since we've seen a ladies room so iffensive. Safe to say, it was beyond disgusting, and I kind of feel like crying just thinking about it. As a girl, I don't think you EVER become
immune to the horrors of public toilets in Asia. Eugh.
Anyhoo, we were dropped off outside our hotel and things certainly improved from there. Our room is gorgeous, the air con works, and AND - we have a POOL!!!!! Amazing, truely amazing. So five days on, it's little wonder we are reluctant to leave! We have all really fallen in love with Hoi An; it's such a pretty little town. We are staying about 20 minutes from the centre. The main street is a little like a posher Luang Prabang, full of cute little bars and lots of gorgeous restaurants. There is a little strip of bars and restaurants along the river; all of the building are no more than two storeys high, and most of them are lit up by tiny lights and coloured laterns every night. Hoi An is reknowed for its clothes making; and it is absolutley jam packed with tailors, i've never seen anything like it. It's a pity we're not doing this stop on the way home because you could get some fab suits made for work (I say that as if I have a job). Obviously the shopaholic within me couldn't resist altogether however,
and I'm due to pick up a sundress in the morning! Overall we've been taking it fairly easy here; soaking up the sun at the pool, wandering around the city and eating a lot of good food. We ended up at a pool party the other night, which was the only disco-type option available. It was full of svedish blokes called Sven in speedos, but luckily there was a dancefloor inside, and we managed to boogie away until the wee hours.
This morning we went on a day trip to the ruins of My Son, and for the first time I can say it was a TOTAL waste of time. First of all, we had to get out of bed at 7.30am. Then there was the usual craic of the bus spending an hour picking everyone up. And when we finally got to the place, it was a total disappointment. It's the ruins of an old temple complex, but it's really tiny (I've become an awful temple snob) and half an hour would have done the whole lot. But instead we were stuck there for two hours, and we had opted to take a boat back rather than the bus,
which was just more of a waste of time. We stopped at a "village" along the way (no mention of this when we were booking the tour) which was just an excuse to try to get us to buy some wooden ornaments. Do I look like I need a fat mahogany smiling buddha in my life? When we finally got to the end of the boat journey our guide, who was a bit of a dodgy fecker, basically told us we had to look at the map and find our own way home. Cheers mate!
So tomorrow we're due to fly to Nha Trang, which is another beach resort. Did I say fly? Yes, yes I did. But in our defence; trains in Vietnam are almost as dear as planes, but they take 12 times longer. That, and we're lazy wagons!
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