Day 145 - Friday, June 15
The nicest option for trains in Vietnam are what's known as "soft sleepers," which means you get a bed with a cushion/mattress. Unlike Thai and Malaysian trains, the beds run perpendicular to the train and are grouped in 4-bed rooms/cabins. I unfortunately had a top bunk, and once again I didn't fit between the solid walls at the head and foot of the bed. But eventually I got to sleep. However, I was woken a little before 6 as one of the guys in my cabin woke up and was making noise. Then, inexplicably, he turned the music on, on his phone, without headphones and it was really loud. This, despite the fact that he had headphones and had used them when he was listening to music to fall asleep. I think this might take the cake as the most inconsiderate thing I've experienced yet. His music blared for the next several hours and made it very difficult to fall back asleep. The train finally got to Hue around 10am. A view of the train after deboarding:
I then headed to my hotel,
Than Thien Friendly Hotel, which was a little bit nicer than the place I stayed in Hanoi, making it the nicest place I'd stayed to date. Pictures on the website if you're curious. As I was somewhat exhausted, I napped for a bit, and then when I awoke it was raining outside, so I just enjoyed the nice hotel room for the afternoon. I did finally leave the room to get some dinner and check out the night markets by the waterfront.
Day 146 - Saturday, June 16
Hue is primarily a tourist destination because it was the capital of the old Nguyen Dynasty that ruled a large portion of Vietnam in the 19th and early 20th centuries. So I went and checked out the remains of the old citadel, gates, palaces and such. A few pictures:
As I was heading back to my hotel, I was approached by several people trying to sell me taxi rides and such, who I'd normally turn away, but I was still trying to figure out how to make my way to Hoi An. The cheapest and fastest option is a bus or minibus, but I had read that there was a lot to see between the two cities, so I was debating between trying to drive myself on a moped or motorcycle, or hire a guide to take me on a moped or motorcycle. Ultimately I decided on
Le Family Riders, and Uy as my guide. Uy seemed like a really nice guy, and his primary sales tactic was to repeatedly mention that he had been
Sam Elliott's guide for the same trip not long ago. I decided I had correctly judged that Uy was a nice guy when he offered to give me a free ride back to my hotel, and then on the way back, he offered to take me to dinner at a local restaurant for some
bun bo hue.
A few hours later, Uy was back to pick me up and we checked out a plastic-furniture-on-the-sidewalk restaurant, serving up big bowls of delicious noodle soup at cheap prices. I was the only white person there. Then Uy took me to a bar, where we sampled the local beer of Hue,
Huda.
As an aside, unlike other countries where there seems to be one or two national beers that are the primary beers for the whole country, in Vietnam it seems to be more regional, with Bia Hanoi being the beer of choice in Hanoi, Huda in Hue, 333 in Hoi An, and Bia Saigon in Saigon, with a few others mixed in here and there.
Day 147 - Sunday, June 17
Sunday, I was up early to meet Uy and his dad, who were taking me and a Swiss guy over to Hoi An. We drove through some rice fields on our way to an old Japenese covered bridge.
Then to Capital Buddha, a recently built Buddhist temple at the center of a manmade lake that seems to be more popular with locals than tourists:
And unfortunately a whole bunch of stairs for my bum leg (yep still having leg issues):
Then to Elephant Stream, for lunch and some swimming:
The next stop was at Lang Co, a fishing village at the foot of the
Hai Van Pass, where I got a photo of Uy and the moped with the luggage strapped on.
The stretch of road from there to the Hai Van Pass is a beautiful winding road with cliffs and views rivaling PCH in California.
At the top of the Hai Van Pass, there are a handful of American bunkers and lookout towers left from the Vietnam war that were interesting to see and provided panoramic views of Da Nang to the south, Lang Co Beach to the north and the ocean to the east.
From there we made our way through Da Nang to the
Marble Mountains, which were probably the most impressive part of the trip from Hue to Hoi An. My pictures don't even start to do it justice (this new camera is not so good in low-light situations). And of course, more stairs.
But at least I got a few decent pictures of Da Nang from the top.
We finally arrived in Hoi An around sunset. I don't think my ass has ever been so sore as it was when we finally got there. For all its positives, riding on the back of a moped all day is definitely not the most comfortable way to make the journey.
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