That's a quote from 'Good, Morning Vietnam!' by the way. Our train to our next destination was so late in the day that we pretty much had another full day to spend in Hanoi. Rather than spend our time dodging motorbikes we stayed in for the majority of it, sorting out directions and blog posts, as they are always there to be caught up with. Despite the hotels suggestion of getting a taxi to the train station, we decided to walk it. How hard could it be to walk over 2km through awkward and busy Hanoi streets in fading light, humid temperatures and during the evening rush hour? Turns out rather testing. We did leave the hotel with some daylight but it was fading, fast. By the time we'd reached the lake it was all but gone. So we ventured on into the dark Unknown, trusting the cars and bikes not to run us over, as we had to walk on the road thanks to the cluttered pavements. After crossing the worlds most confusing intersection, we were on the last stretch. We plodded into the station concourse sweating profusely and found ourselves a seat where we could cool off. We had an hour or so before our train was ready but just had to sit around and wait it out. After a while we casually got up and wandered along the station and found out it was boarding, despite there having been no announcement. So we hopped on and found our cabin. It was a pleasant surprise to our previous few, it was spacious, air condition and clean. There were already 2 locals settled in, so we made ourselves at home quietly.
Thursday
It was an uneventful journey. We couldn't see anything out of the windows because it was dark and our roommates were pretty quiet and kept themselves to themselves. We arrived at Hué station at 9 o'clock and stepped off into the tropical humidity. Before we'd left Hanoi we'd looked up a weather forecast and had been expecting rain when we arrived. The sun was nice but we knew we'd just be sweating on to sweat again. We set off in what we thought was the correct direction, ignoring all the taxi drivers and motorbikes offering us a lift. It turned out to be the right way and it took us half an hour to arrive safely at our hotel. We checked in, despite there being a slight issue with our booking, in that our hotel had moved after we'd booked it and we actually had a booking with the hotel that was in our originals former location. They sorted all this mess out for us though which was a huge help. Despite not having stayed there yet they also offered us free breakfast, a welcome drink and complimentary fruit, which was really nice. We were checked in nice and early and shown to what turned out to be a triple room (they obviously only had that room available and had to squeeze us in somewhere). We settled into the room and made use of the shower to get rid of all the sweat from the last 2 days. After our freshen up and rest we hit the streets of Hué to do some exploring and sweating. We started in the direction of the Perfume River, ignoring the people on every street corner offering us a motorbike. We made it to the river and then had to contend with the very persistent man trying to sell us a trip on his rather dilapidated boat. Eventually he gave up and moved on to people who were walking away from him over a bridge. We enjoyed a humid stroll along the side of the river, making the most of the shade when it came along. We turned off after a while and twisted and turned through the streets of Hué, just enjoying the small town feel. There wasn't much too see but it was nice to be away from the constant threat of death by motorbike. After a good couple hours we decided to head back to our hotel and cool off but visited the supermarket on the way to pick up some lunch. What caught our eye was the fresh bakery section, with a huge stack of French sticks. We picked one up, along with some crisps and a chocolate bar. We sat out the front of the shop and ate the entire French stick, dry, between us. Sitting there, we noticed how the cars in Vietnam all seem to be large, brand new and expensive, more consistently than they would be at home. It's still quite an exclusive thing to own a car it seems, only for the rich, which means there are no bangers. Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed bread for lunch and walked home pretty pleased with ourselves. That night, we found a small restaurant tucked down an alleyway and despite being harvested for our blood by a million mosquitos, had a really good 4 course dinner for less than £5 each.
Friday
Our aim for today was to visit the Imperial City. So, after breakfast, we repeated our walk from the day before but this time crossed the river and followed the endless stream of traffic in the direction of the Citadel (this and the Imperial City are pretty much the same thing). It is a walled fortress and palace; Hué was the former imperial capital of Vietnam. The other good thing about Hué being a smaller city is it means fewer tourists and crowds at the main attractions. There was no line to get in, so we skipped through the ticket stalls and started our wander around. These days it is more of a ruin than an Imperial City and it saw some fierce fighting during the Vietnam War (Hué isn't far from the old borders of North and South Vietnam), in the concrete walls you can see clusters of bullet holes. As a result of shelling and fighting, only 10 of the original 160 structures remain. It was still a great place to visit and see some history. There were numerous statues and buildings, all in various states of delapidation. There was also a corridor which gave a history of the former ruling family of Vietnam but it was far too many Nguyens for one to take in. We spent a good 3 hours here, which was probably more than needed but we enjoyed the peace and quiet far too much. We wandered back in the direction of our hotel and found a different supermarket to visit but still snaffled up a French stick for lunch. After a refuel we crossed back over the bridge and got back to the pleasant relief of air conditioning at our hotel ready to scrub up for some dinner. As the restaurant the previous night was so good, we decided to save the stress of finding another one and plumped for it again, we just couldn't complain at that price!
Saturday
With things to do in Hué rather limited, while we were planning we decided to go on an overnight trip down the coast to Da Nang. We were off bright and early to catch our train at 8:30. The walk to the station was slightly hindred when Charlotte suddenly declared she had left the train tickets in the hotel room. We hadn't got halfway back to the hotel when suddenly, she had remembered she had the one for today and we could print the other one off at our hostel in Da Nang. So we turned back for the station and then she also remembered she had the other ticket in our backpack. Despite those mad 5 minutes we still got to the train station with plenty of time to spare. The train pulled in and we all piled on to the carriage, it quickly became clear that despite being issue seat numbers they weren't really followed by the locals. Luckily we still managed to get a seat together for the 2 hour journey to Da Nang. Apparently, this stretch of line that runs from Hanoi in the North to Saigon in the south, is the most aesthetically pleasing, offering great views of the South China Sea as it twists and turns along the cliffs. Unfortunately, our seat was on the wrong side, so we could only appreciate the views (which were spectacular) with someone's head in the way. We pulled into Da Nang on time and made the short walk from the station to our hostel, grateful we weren't lugging our large backpacks with us. We checked in and got into our room but quickly realised we wouldn't be spending the night there. The bathroom was absolutely infested with ants, crawling up the wall and in the toilet and they had started to make their way through to the bedroom and onto the bed. We went down and complained to reception and they said that the cleaner would be by later (surely she had already been there? Or were we walking into an uncleared room?) to have a look at them. We weren't convinced but agreed and we headed out into Da Nang. There was probably less to see in Da Nang than Hué but we were probably being more productive by seeing another city. We hadn't discovered a pin badge in Hué so found a large souvenir in the hope of finding one for Da Nang but still had no luck. We were on the riverside by this point so enjoyed a walk down to Da Nang's most impressive structure, the Dragon Bridge. It called this because it's built in the shape of a dragon, it's undulating body providing the arches of the bridge. We could see it from well down the Han River and it was a pretty impressive sight from there. We slowly walked towards it, observing the locals killing time on the promenade by playing cards, painting and gossiping. We fancied some lunch so found a modern looking cafe facing the river and headed in. We got a pizza and a burger and were really impressed by the size and quality of the non-local food. With full bellies we carried on towards the dragon bridge to take a few snaps before we wandered back to our hostel to sort out the ant situation (there will be more from the Dragon Bridge later as there was more to it than meets the eye!). We arrived back at our hostel and it seemed like they had forgotten about the problem and unsurprisingly, the cleaner hadn't turned up. After some frantic talking, phone calls and actually going up to check out the ants themselves, they informed us they would be moving us to their sister hostel, which was across the other side of town. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't asked if they could offer us transport they would have happily let us walk through Da Nang at night, with us not having a clue where we were going. They informed us our 'transport' would be here soon and we collected our things ready. It turned out it was the manager of the hostel we were moving to but he didn't seem too thrilled to be out driving through downtown Da Nang during the evening rush hour. He made small talk though and informed us that we'd be getting a better room than we'd booked for the inconvenience. It was more of an apartment than a room, probably better than what we expect to stay in while working in New Zealand. It had a kitchen and living area, with a separate bedroom and bathroom. It was great, apart from the quite obvious fact that nobody had stayed in it for quite a while. The fridge was unplugged and open, the toilet was dirty and the sheets had dead bugs on them, atleast there wasn't ants crawling over everything though and we weren't really paying for this room. We spent a few hours in the room and then headed down and out in the direction of the Dragon Bridge. We were on the other side of the river now and it's not being unfair to say that there was absolutely nothing to see, do or eat as there was the side we were originally on. We trapped through the pitch darkness, past 2 unbelievably creepy deserted playgrounds playing even creepier music and joined the crowds by the bridge. Every Saturday and Sunday at 9pm the head of the dragon on the bridge breathes fire and water from it mouth. Seeing as we'd not come across any fire breathing bridges on our travels so far we had to see this one in action. There was a good crowd in attendance, a mix of both locals and tourists. There was numerous people trying to make money out of it too, offering a small plastic seat to sit and watch it on but we opted to remain standing. It started prompt and despite a stutter in the middle when the fire stopped was a really good spectacle, short but unique. With that over, we headed back to our hostel, reluctantly passing the haunted playgrounds again and picking up some noodles for dinner. When we got back, we had a quick look on tripadvisor at the Dragon Bridge. I couldn't get over the reviews saying it wasn't great. Sure, it can be unreliable and is hardly a full evenings entertainment but it's a fire breathing bridge for crying out loud, enjoy it for what it is!
We had grand plans for our morning. Our hostel was located right next to a beach so we going to have a nose around. We just hadn't counted on the weather. Despite being the dry season it was pouring down all morning, so we had little choice but to shelter inside and with a train to catch had an hour walk ahead of us to the station. Upon checking out, we made a quick dash to the shop nearby to pick up a new umbrella each. We contemplated the beach once more, just to say we'd seen it but we just didn't have the enthusiasm. We took the same route as the night before and had to walk across the 666m Dragon Bridge while being buffeted constantly by the wind. Somehow we made it to the other side but my brand new umbrella wasn't so lucky and is now permanently disfigured from the experience. We stopped off at the same cafe as the day before for some lunch and then carried on our damp walk to the station. We managed to get the good side of the carriage this time but with the weather terrible there was nothing to see but grey clouds and angry waves. It was still pouring when we pulled into Hué, having just dried off from our previous walk we had to do it all over again. We dripped into our hotel lobby sodden to the bone and all our receptionist could say was "you weren't at breakfast this morning". We did laugh. We left a trail of puddles behind us as we walked up to our room to clean up before dinner. We picked a different restaurant this time in the alley way but not in the second one and it was just as nice and just as cheap.
We'd had a great few days in Hué and Da Nang and we were really starting to enjoy Vietnam. Our final stop in the country would be Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon to you and me.
Lots of Love
James and Charlotte
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