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Published: October 25th 2006
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Pine forests and dead emporers
Tu Duc tomb along the perfume river in Hue Our next stop in Vietnam was Hue (pronounced Hway), we opted for travelling by sleeper train (costing about 15gbp each). The train left Hanoi at 19.50pm (20th October) and arrived in Hue the following day at 11.30am, our compartment slept 4 and by prebooking a hotel whilst we were in Hanoi we ensured a lift was waiting for us at the train station.
For the journey we spent the last 100,000 dong (which is about 3.50gbp) we had on us on locally made baguettes, Laughing Cow cheese spread, a few Tiger beers and some water. Unfortunately when we started preparing our dinner we noticed the bread was crawling in small ants. Matt (ever the gentleman) tore a baguette in half and noticing the ants seemed to only live in one half of the bread gave me the ant-free half and began picking the ants out one by one before spreading his cheese, I watched on chewing each bite as many times as possible just in case!
Our room mates for the journey Jesper (Denmark) and Sean (Canada) were pretty quiet and by 11pm were both asleep. We awoke around 6.30am when instant beef noodles were delivered to our compartment.
Tu Duc tombs
The most peaceful spot in Vietnam so far Our hotel, Binh Duang, was pretty good, for 6gbp we got aircon, a bath, a balcony, free internet and even a PC in our room...it didn't actually ever manage to connect to the internet but the thought was there...
After arriving we headed to the Mandarin Cafe for lunch and decided to walk a route we saw suggested at the cafe which took in most of the main sites including a huge Citadel and an area which is called the Forbidden Purple City. Hue is fairly small and easy to get round by foot, there was a huge contrast between the noise and pace of Hanoi though the motorbike taxis and cyclos are still as persistant with their offers to show you the town for an hour. In addition every hotel, restaurant and shop seems to double up as a tour agency and wants to know your exact movements and how long you plan to stay in Hue in case they can sell you a ticket for something.
We managed to find a good cheap restaurant for dinner on night one where we sampled the local Huda beer (costs around 25p a bottle and is actually pretty
Don't be Coy
The water turns to carp as we feed the fish in the Forbidden City good), before going to a bar run by a gruff voiced woman wearing an evening dress and her Stone Roses loving brother who both tried and failed to persuade us to go on one of their motorcycle tours.
On our second day we opted for a boat trip down the Perfume River. Along the river are tombs of past emporers, there are quite a few and they are fairly pricey to get into so we opted for the couple that were recommended to us. For $2 you can go on a tourist boat with other people but it takes all day and you have to hang around when they stop at a temple you don't want to go into. For $10 we got our own boat, operated by a woman and her three children, saw the tombs we wanted to see and were back by 2pm. We are not sure how legit the boat was, though we booked it through our hotel, as when we tried to sit in the fresh air we were asked not to in case the police saw us!
One of the tombs (Tu Duc) is set back from the river (about 4km) and
Attention !!
Matt joins the stone army guarding the tombs a motorbike taxi is needed to transport you. On the way to the tomb my driver seemed ok, promoising to go slow as I was nervous, but on the way back wanted to know if Matt and I were married, when I said no he started to pat my leg and tell me I was nice, I quickly told him Matt was my boyfriend at which point he wanted to know if I could find him an English woman!
On Sunday evening we met an Australian couple called Matt and Kathleen who were on holiday from Sydney, we sat chatting to them whilst the Liverpool v Man U game played in the background. The Australians had been to our next stop (Hoi An) so were able to give us some tips as well as giving us their details to contact when we get to Sydney next year.
Monday morning saw us boarding our $2 bus to Hoi An, we took the scenic route which promised to stop at a beach and at Marble Mountains. The first stop was a grotty cafe somewhere near the beach, and as for the mountains we think we drove past them but can't
Local kids in Hue
They were laughing at us, not with us !! bless 'em actually be sure (good job this bus was the same price as the non-scenic option)! At one point we had thought about stopping in Danang next, this is the town where the typhoon struck a few weeks back, there was some evidence of storm damage though nothing to suggest that quite a few people had died, the town didn't look particularly inviting and as we passed through I was relieved we had bypassed it for Hoi An.
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Chris
non-member comment
Do you want me clean ur kegs for yer? H'way man!!!! H'way!!! Ha ha dong!! This blog just keeps getting better! Glad you two are good and you have not become a trophy wife. take care toilets!!