To train or not to train? Part III

To train or not to train? Part I

To train or not to train? Part II

Hanoi 2010. We’ve caught up with old friends and made new ones. Now it's time to make our way to Hue. Adopting the ‘winging it’ method of travelling more and more in recent trips, we had not booked any flight. The price, by Vietnamese prices, was expensive and there weren’t any departing soon enough for our pencilled in itinerary. I had read about Livitrans before arriving and opted to give it a go. The VIP cabins, for two, were only available on runs to Sapa, so it was Tourist Class for us.

One of the hotel staff accompanied us to the station where we entered (a controlled and sanitised room) and waited in a separate area to the local travellers. We boarded. Our roomies were a couple from Holland. Pleasant and friendly. Our cabins were similarly pleasant and friendly, with complimentary water, snack and tooth brushes. Not a bad trip and would probably do it again, although next time, perhaps medicated.

It’s just that lack of sleep thing that gets me every time and the train driver had a habit of slamming on the breaks every hour or so. Arrive Hue.

A couple of days later we biked it from Hue to Hoi An, which is not far from Danang (about 6 hours with scenic stops) and is the end of the line for the Livitran service. Not sure if it’s a north/south remnant left over from the war. From Danang we were headed for Nha Trang, but the trains weren’t overnighters.

I spoke to the girls at the Mango Split cafe (photo) in Hoi An, who suggested stopping in one of two towns to break up the trip. Quy Nhon (will be going there again) here we come!

*Word of advice – check out the price directly from/at the train station, before buying your ticket. Ripped off severely by VN standards....

Day 8 Hue to Hoi An

Today Duc and Thang doubled us on their bikes to Hoi An, which is about a 6 hour ride allowing for sight seeing.

Along the way we stopped at a few places including a fishing village, Monkey Waterfall...no, there are no monkeys. It's a local swimming spot in a national park, where you can hire a shelter and spend the day swimming and or eating meals prepared by the ladies running the shelters.
That's a butterfy on my head!

At Danang we visited Marble Mountain, which is surrounded by marble carving shops. The mountain has caves within with stone carvings and shrines. It was quite beautiful and cool inside, which was a welcome relief.

Our friend Dung prebooked our hotel for us in Hoi An, which is lovely. After we recovered from our bike ride, we went back to the Banana Split Cafe, which we frequented two years ago, to find the same staff working there and had dinner.

Day 7 Hue

Stray went the train station, on the hunt for his shoes and some clothes he had left behind on the overnight train. Apparently they had travelled ahead to Danang.

We hired a boat for a few hours and chugged down the Perfume river, to a pagoda that we had already seen by land, yesterday...you get a bit of that, something gets lost in the translation sometimes, oh well.

Haven't done any shopping yet, as we only took carry on bags, but I did buy a hand painted card of a cat on it to remind me of the poor thing in Hanoi. We could hear a cat crying, night and day. Another hotel guest, who it had kept awake all night, located it tied up on a short piece of rope in a house opposite our hotel. We complained to the hotel, but I doubt they could convince the owner to untie it. So, I drew a picture of a cat crying and saying 'help me, help me' in Vietnamese. Stray made a paper airplane out of it, but my attempt to fly it into the house was not very successful. He found it outside later that evening (unfolded) and flew it right to where the cat was...one can only hope the owner read it.

In the afternoon, we escaped the heat for a while and relaxed.

More eating of course, at a cafe just across from our hotel (Thao Nghyen Canteen). Ordering food can be an adventure in itself, you are never quite sure what is going to arrive on the table.

I ordered grilled meat rolls, which was minced meat pressed onto a lemon grass stork in a sausage form and grilled...then you slide it off into a rice paper wrapper and add salad, roll it up and dip it all into a unusual peanut sauce...yum! It's called Nem Nuong.

Day 6 Hue

The overnight train to Hue, was not so bad, but I had no or little sleep...unlike Stray who slept like a baby. After arriving at the hotel, I had a nap, while Stray befriended Duc and Thang, local motorcycle tour guides.
They showed us a few of the major sights in Hue in the afternoon - the Citidel, the Heavenly Woman Pagoda, some U.S war bunkers over looking the Perfume River and a Japanese bridge and musem.
We had a relaxing evening having dinner and a few drinks at the 'Why Not?' restaurant at the end of our street.

The food here is amazing!