So we hopped on the night train and headed south from Hanoi (not before stopping off to see Uncle Ho's tomb). I had horrible memories of over night trains but this turned out okay. We only had one other person in our 4 berth cabin and she was out like a light. Slept like a baby the whole way, except from about 6am on when the carraige waitress deemed it necessary to scream "Tea! Coffee!"in the cabin every 20 minutes.
Whistle stop We decided to push through Hue pretty quick. Hue's a nice town which surrounds the remarkable Imperial Palace. The palace was the home to the last line of kings in Vietnam (from 1820 odd up till the French left) and they did spectacular. Despite it's relative newness, the Imperial Palace exuded oldness and history. We took a wander around it's large grounds and imposing city walls in the impossible heat until more were more sweat than human.
Next it was off around the town with the moto boys. These guys operate out of the Thu Wheels cafe (owned by the wonderfully offensive Mrs. Thu) and specialise in taking tourists on the back of their Honda bikes to the numerous tombs of the kings in the vacinity, and they throw in some war bunkers and japanese bridges too. The highlight was the mauseleum of the Tu Doc, king of Vietnam in the mid-19 century. It was a very lavish place with beautiful buidlings, a lake all set in the hills over Hue. He liked it so much that he lived there for 16 years before he died. He had over a 100 wives incidentially......
After taking in a view of the infamous Hamburger Hill (big battle, lots of people killed during the Vietnam war) from a distance (too many mines still up there) and releasing my death grip on my speeding and weaving drivers shoulders, we decided it was time to head on to Hoi An so it was on the bus for us and away back towards the coast.
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