Lunch on the Perfume River tour boat

The train ride to Hue was the night without end. We had heard from fellow travellers that the bus trip, although only 9 USD, took 19 hours, so we had booked a relatively expensive berth on the overnight express train (40 USD). It did not start out well. We arrived at the station and located our car, only to find that we did not have a lower berth with a mattress as I had expected, we had a 'hard berth'. This is like a linoleum table top covered with a straw mat, stacked 3 to a side. You get a pillow, but not even any blankets. The last straw was when Ray announced there were cockroaches on the floor. I left Ray stomping on roaches, while I returned to the station to upgrade to a soft sleeper. This was accomplished by paying the conductor the difference, about 15 USD per ticket. I followed the conductor back to the new car, rousing Ray on the way, and waited while he conferred with another train attendant about the bunk assignments. We finally were led to a compartment to join a young Japanese man and an older Vietnamese man. We got the upper berths, but all I cared was that it had a comfortable mattress.

We slept comfortably in our berths, although we did find it odd that the train seemed to stop for long periods of time. At 4:30 in the morning the conductor suddenly turned on all the lights in the compartment & indicated to us in Vietnamese that we were to leave. Not knowing where we were or what was happening, we hurriedly packed our things and got out of the train to join hundreds of other people milling around. Men on motorcycles kept entreating us to follow them, but our Vietnamese friend indicated we should follow him to a waiting minibus. The minibus took us down the road beside the train about one K, passing a bridge under construction on the way. Eureka, our train could go no further. We got out and a few minutes later, another train approached from the opposite direction. As I suspected, this is where the big switch took place. The 2nd train load got off & we took their places in the compartments and ½ half hour later, we were finally on our way again. Even our Vietnamese friend was unprepared for this disruption and he had some heated words with our new train attendant, a woman. I don't know who he was but he was getting preferential treatment from the train staff.

At almost 9 AM, our scheduled arrival time in Hue, we pulled into a station. From the sign that Ray saw, and reading the map with our Vietnamese friend, we determined that we were in Vinh. We had travelled only 300 K in 12 hours and we had another 365 K to go! The train attendant confirmed that the new arrival time would be 4 PM. The good news was that we had a relatively comfortable spot to wait out the time. We did have breakfast and then lunch provided and I finished one of my books an started into another. We spent quite a bit of time standing in the corridor enjoying the countryside as we passed by. It was evident that the extreme flooding that occured in this part of Vietnam affected not only the railway bridge but the roads as well. A road alongside the train tracks was being completely rebuilt, but was as yet unpaved. We finally arrived in Hue at 4:30 PM, 17 ½ hrs after our start. I consider ourselves lucky. We met a French couple who had not taken the express train. Instead they had booked a soft berth on the less expensive but on a slightly slower train. With only one track that means that slower trains have to give way to the express train. Their trip took 27 hrs, from 7 Pm to 10 Pm the following day. In retrospect, had we known that the trip would be so long, we would have taken the plane for slight additional cost. Live & learn.

The next day in Hue, we took a day cruise on the Perfume River to visit the Royal Tombs. These were built by the Vietnamese Kings between 1820 - 1945 to provide a suitable resting place for their remains & to commemorate their accomplishments, exploits and virtues. They were usually planned by the king himself and of course vied with each other for sumptuousness & beauty. Fifteen of us put putted down the river on a small ferry sitting on sometimes collapsing plastic deck chairs and attended by the whole family of the boat owner. We stopped first at the Thieu Mu Pagoda. This is famous as the starting point for the monk Thich Quang Duc, who in 1963 drove in an Austin car, also on the site, to Saigon where he promptly burned himself to death to protest the policies of President Diem. You may remember the photos in all the newspapers. The pagoda itself was quite attractive and is the unofficial symbol of Hue.

We stopped at three of the tombs. The first was for Tu Duc, reached by walking or hiring motorcyle rides. It was a beautiful hot day and we all walked the 1 ½ K down a road. This was a beautiful park complete with lakes, trees and manly lovely buildings where he and many of his 104 wives and countless concubines lived for the last years of his life. The second was for Khai Dinh and since it was 2 ½ K inland, I paid for a ride on the back of a motorcycle. Some of the others elected to sit & have a drink, while others walked the distance. Some, like just rested at the gates to the tomb because they didn't want to pay another admission and see more buildings. It was quite a beautiful park like setting on a hill with the main building covered in ceramic mosaic panels made of ceramic pieces and glass. By the time the rest of the group returned to our boat, hot & tired, I was sitting and enjoying a tea at an outdoor patio. Our last stop, the tomb of Minh Mang, was in a huge park, once again with lakes & trees, but was suffering from an extensive reconstruction of the main buildings. It was a long but interesting day.

We left Hue by bus on Wednesday the 5th. We had purchased an open ticket from a local travellers café the will allow us to go all the way to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), stopping off several places for as long as we want, for a total of 23 USD. Not a bad deal. The first leg was to Hoi An, 100 K down the coast. We had several stops along the way to do some sightseeing. We walked along the white sands of Lang Co Beach, which stretch several miles along the South China sea coast, watching the surf roll in. From there we climbed slowly up the Trong Son mountain range following sharp switchbacks to the Hai Van Pass. As well as being scenic, this was rather exciting and really illustrated the damage done by the recent floods. There were long muddy slashed down the hills where the mountains had given way, covering the roads with mud and huge rocks. Roads were being cleared & reconstructed and at one point we had to cross a temporary wooden bridge. Ray told me not to look down, but of course I did, and it was a long fall to the bottom.

The mountains lead to Danang where we stopped beside the Cham Museum with time for a short visit. The most extensive collection of sandstone sculptures from the Cham era (7th to 15th C) are displayed in open air pavillions. As mentioned in the Lonely Planet, we were approached by 'Mr. Louis' who offered his guiding services. We accepted and proceeded to receive more information on the sculptures than we could possibly absorb in our 30 minutes. Back on the bus we stopped a short distance further beside the Marble Mountains and China Beach, made famous by the TV show & the Vietnam war (American war here). The Marble moutains deserved more time than we had & it was hot, so we had lunch & walked on the beach. Once again, it looked like a good windsurfing or surfboarding spot and the water was quite warm. A couple on our bus actually waded in, but we just walked & watched & turned down a ride in a small round fishing boat, constructed of tarred woven bamboo. Too flimsy looking for us in that surf.

We arrived in Hoi An at 2:30 PM, got a hotel, and plan to be here for a few days, vegging and visiting My Son to see Cham ruins. It is summer again & we are acclimatising well.