Episode 9: Travel to Hue and Hoi An
Lunch on the Perfume River tour boat
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January 6, 2000The 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.
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