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27th April 2009
This morning over breakfast we decide to give Laos a miss, it mostly comes down to money which is starting to be stretched. Laos will be down on our list at some point, just not this trip.
At midday after a morning relaxing and a little writing we book a sleeper coach down to Hue and ask for our bill at the hotel. The manageress charges us an extra half a day for today’s use of the room, that’s fair enough for us until she tries to charge us for our coffees at breakfast. We remind her that the deal was for room and breakfast included and of course that mean a beverage with our food. The woman wasn’t pleased with us for pointing this out and cut us evil looks. Pili took care of business but was punished when the manageress handed back our passports. Pili’s pages had been separated from the cover. This passport was in near mint condition, Pili’s very particular about this type of thing and always keeps valuable documents flat in a waterproof bag and safely stashed away. This was obviously just spitefulness by this woman, we’d brought along extra guest
and we’d spent a good amount of money in the resturaunt and bar, partly forced to by the lack of facilities in the town. Again it is the small things that put a taint on the whole experience, instead of my usual anger at these situations I’m now becoming a little saddened by this very negative attitude and greed. THERE IS NO NEED TO RIP THE TOURISTS OFF……..THEY WON’T COME BACK!!!!!
Our overnight sleeper bus trip is a pain in the neck literary, my bunk is way too small and I’m put right at the front in the centre isle and on the top bunk with the very annoying TV at my feet. Pili is put just about as far away from me possible right at the back of the bus; it’s very strange not having Pili next to me during this lengthy bus trip. The bus is packed as its ‘Liberation Weekend’ and Vietnamese have been travelling all over the country for celebrations that last for five consecutive days. Two people were actually kicked out of our beds by the driver, I guess they were keeping them warm for us; we felt really bad and almost refused to
take the beds but the couple genuinely didn’t seem to mind and quickly made themselves beds on the floors. Looking back I think we were lucky to get tickets at all.
28th April 2009
By the time we arrive in Hue it’s 8:00am, eleven hours trapped in a undersized bunk, I think the couple who made beds on the floor knew exactly what they were doing……..LEG ROOM!
Exhausted we take the first taxi driver that approaches us and settle on a room rate for the hotel he works for. A French couple also squeezed into the taxi with us and check in at the same hotel. The hotel seems clean and friendly and it also has a good Wi Fi internet connection, perfect. We order some breakfast with coffee, also part of the deal and then tuck in. Satisfied and ready for unpacking and maybe a nap the manageress informs us that after talking to the absent manager it appears we have to pay 50% extra because of the national holidays and the demand for rooms. I point out that it’s their loss if that’s the attitude, myself and my good lady will find somewhere else to
stay and I’m pretty sure my French friends will follow. The poor little girl who has been left to relay the message to us is obviously quite embarrassed and says she will talk again with her boss, I told her to tell her boss that maybe the prices go up depending on the colour of our skin and has nothing to do with the holidays or anything else. I can see in the girl’s eyes that I’ve hit the obvious truth and they’ve been caught out, her cheeks flush to a candy apple red in shame. I tell her it’s not her fault and that we realised she is just taking orders. After the brief phone call the problem and the increased rates are forgotten and the rest of our stay in the hotel is without hitch.
In the afternoon we take a stroll around the city along the riverside, it seems very quiet and we don’t run into the crowds that we expected. We also notice a perceivable difference in the people, more smiles and hellos and generally a more relaxed feeling, even the roads are clean from litter!
Everywhere strung up on buildings, trees and
across the roads are large red, oil cloth banners announcing ‘Liberation Day’, all with a large portrait of Ho Chi Min with his distinctive white goatee beard. This brings home the fact that we are in a communist country, the hammer and sickle are plastered everywhere and quite a lot of military presence is obvious.
The rain soon catches up with us so we duck into a little resturaunt called ‘Minh & Coco Mini Restaurant’. The rain gets heavier while we eat noodles and sink a beer, we just let the World go by and it’s a very nice way to spend an hour.
The rain finally relents and we make our way back to the hotel. Pili stops and admires some embroidered pictures in a local shop, the work really is stunning but definitely not my cup of tea, I can see in Pili’s eyes she’d love to buy one for her mom though. The rain continues off and on for the rest of the day, apart from Pili popping out to the local bakers for Banana cake which by the way is amazing we spend the evening in our small room watching some TV and I
also catch up with some current events on the internet. The major news story was about the outbreak of Swine Flu in Mexico City and the possibilities of a pandemic, mmmmmmmmmm here we go, line up for your Tamiflu pills and vaccinations!
29th April 2009
It rained all night and through most of the morning and we both wake up a little under the weather with cold symptoms and a strange smell of pork in the room…….only kidding, but we do have colds coming on. Our room looks like a Chinese laundry with damp cloths hanging everywhere. With the humidity and heat in this part of the world two things a traveller has to get used to, one is sweating 24/7 and the second is the routine of constantly washing your clothes and being surrounded by damp undies. This isn’t really the frustrating part, what really rattles me is the impossible task of actually getting the clothes 100% dry, we are always wearing slightly damp clothes and trust me after a while they smell very bad, nobody has said anything to me apart from Pili of course but I have to admit that I’ve grossed myself out
a couple of times after wearing damp shorts for a day moving around in this heat. I never thought I’d say it but I do miss a washing machine and dryer.
About midday we venture out with camera bags in waterproof covers and our green rain ponchos that make us look like green peppers with legs. It’s just one of those shitty, drizzly kind of days. We’ve decide to visit the famous Citadel and palace of the former emperor. By the time we cross the Perfume River via one of the cities large bridges and all the time walking into an on coming tide of bicycles, it’s raining hard. We take shelter in a street café near the entrance of the Citadel, we order a couple of coffees made traditionally with condensed milk. We’ve become quite fond of this style of coffee and the condensed milk gives the very strong coffee an almost alcoholic taste, most appealing.
We kill forty minutes staring out into the wet street watching the sheets of rain bring the city to a stand still, the cafes and bars do well out of this extreme weather, everybody rushes in out of the downpour and
consumes beverages while sitting it out. If there is such a thing as a God of the rains then I bet he has shares with all the major coffee producers, Vietnam is one of the World’s biggest.
It has to be said we were both a little disappointed with the Citadel and Palace. Most of it was destroyed by the American forces during the war and the restorations look just a little too new. Also apart from a very bland video giving the history of the site there is nothing in the way of information about the site. They’ve even put large plastic frogs in the court yard for use as litter bins; it all just seems a little tacky and is more about the tourist dollar than preserving the history of the place. We have a bit of a laugh about it and take our pictures. One nice touch for me is that in the ornamental lakes on either side of the entrance are hundreds of beautiful Coi Carp, thousands of pounds of fish and they all follow any tourist that they perceive is about to feed them, thrashing the water to a foam as they fight for
access to any morsels dropped into the water, it makes a nice piece of footage for me.
On the way back home we go via “Minh & Coco’s” again for lunch and then head to the pharmacy for a remedy for our snivelling colds. Back at the hotel we book our coach ticket to Bach Ma National Park and pray for the rain to stop. Our evening is a repeat of yesterday’s, TV, internet and Banana Cakes, and of course not forgetting the damp, musty washing EVERYWHERE!
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peter
non-member comment
Give & Take
I bet you got them back for the bad coach journey by snoring like a warthog for the duration! aah memories :-)