Rain Rain and more Rain

Trip Start Nov 26, 2007
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Trip End Apr 17, 2008


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Where I stayed
Peace Hotel
(Hue hotels)

Flag of Vietnam  ,
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Well after a final rice porridge with fish in Mui Ne it was time to get my skates on out of there.  We had a final night of eating and drinking Saigon beer with the crew and they all went south while I headed North.  The most amazing part about the journey (apart from the fantastic views of the Central Highlands etc of course) was the bus.  I was on a sleeping bus the whole way...sleeping bus meaning a bus where the seats are more like beds.  There are about 30 seats on the bus and you have no one sitting next to you, all for around 50% more than a standard bus.  It is so comfortable!!  You do have to be a bit careful that you choose the right seat as some have more leg room than others.  The odd thing is that they have a toilet but it locked except for use by the drivers and instead they stop every 4 hours and shout toilet...the answer is not to drink anything and just sleep.  On the 1st leg of the journey to Nha Trang there was only three of us on the bus; a Hungarian girl and Chilean bloke.  The girl was a bit ignorant and I got a bit ignorant with the bloke who seemed to be very up on the fact that you could fire a RPG or AK47 in Cambodia but was blissfully ignorant of the fact that people had died there and had never heard of the Khmer Rouge The sleeping bus
The sleeping bus
 . I put Ozric Tentacles on my Ipod at that point.  The second leg from Nha Trang to Hoi An was from 8pm till 7am and the bus was busier but I passed out for most of the journey after a quick chat with a nervous little Japanese girl and a Chinese man who was trying to become afore mentioned Japanese girls tour guide even though she had n intention of going to China.  I did learn how to make friends with the local kids working in the service stations -eat a raw chili or two and within minutes the boys are pulling at your arm hair and the girls are asking you to marry their sisters!!

One thing you notcie when driving around the countryside is the amount of graveyards (totally non-existant in the other Asian countries I have visited)..all really big and adorned with swastikas (apparently the direction of rotation is different from the Nazi ones but its still a bit bizarre to see).  I did a bit of reading on this and apparently the Vietnamese were a lot more welcoming to the Catholic missionaries who arrived from Portugal and France back in the day.  It seems they were more welcoming as it made trade easier..so once again all the Vietnamese were interested in was getting rich!!

I bounced around a few hotels in Hoi An but in the end just stayed at the one I got dropped off at The sleeping bus
The sleeping bus
 .  Hoi An itself is not really my place.  Although it is a Unesco World Heritage site (maybe just because of the fact it wasn't bombed to fuck during the war by our American friends like most other towns around this area it is very touristy. Most activity seems to be based around shopping or eating/drinking (in fact one small cafe that I was in with one woman working there had 52 pizzas on the menu...its that kinda place).  The market is interesting but I have now seen quite a few markets, I had lunch in the market but the experience was spoiled when the woman decided to charge me 20,000 Dong rather than the 15,000 Dong agreed at the beginning of the meal, I threw the money at her and walked off. 

There are tailor shops everywhere and you can get anything you want made.  But the fact that I am not patient enough to go to Marks and Spencers to buy a shirt makes it very unlikely I am gonna hang around and get something custom made!!  There are a few interesting places where you can see them making silk.  I think there are some other things to do if it isn't pissing down with rain such that you can hire a bike but I didn't really have a good feeling about the town at all so decided not to wait around on the good weather and get off to Hue.

4 hours later I was in Hue Covered Japanese Bridge in Hoi An
Covered Japanese Bridge in Hoi An
 .  Again went with the hotel the bus stopped at, she showed me a massive room right on the top floor with views across the river etc and I was sold...we negotiated on $8/night or $10 including breakfast - later when I saw the book people had been staying in the same room for $20 earlier in the week!!  I guess they must adjust the prices based on how many people share the room which definitely isn't how I thought Vietnam would work.

Hue is a nice little town, the old capital.  The Perfume River runs through the centre of town, on one side is the city and on the other the Emperors old Citadel.  The Citadel has taken a battering from the French and later the US airforce so there isn't much to see apart from a few restored buildings.  All of Hue would be lovely to walk around if it hadn't been freezing and pissing down with rain the whole time.  Just as well the air con unit in my room could also heat and there was a hair dryer to dry out my shoes!!

One night was enough in Hue due to the temperature so I investigated how to get to Hanoi, I really wanted to get the train but at 3 time the cost of the sleeping bus couldn't really justify it.  So it was a case of watching HBO movies from 6am till checkout at 12pm and then hanging around till evening on the bus.  I had a lovely dhal for lunch in an Indian but had to put with 3 American 20 year old girls sat behind me going on about how they couldn't wait to get married and how they were going to choose their maids of honour...I wonder why that country has the highest divorce rate in the world...
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