Jan 26, 2013 - Arriving in Hue, Vietnam

We arrived a few hours late to Hue very tired since the very small bunks, the jolting train car and bumpy ride made sleeping almost impossible! Everyone was so tired. Hue was once Vietnam's Imperial City. Much of Hue, the walled Citadel and the Imperial City was destroyed during the French and American wars. A bus took us to our hotel, Asia Hotel but the rooms were not ready. So Paul & I walked down to Perfume River and saw dragon boats, house boats and long tail vessels dredging for sand. We walked through a park along the river looking at...

Jan 25, 2013 - Hue, Vietnam

Hue, Vietnam Friday January 25, 2013 Day 16 of G It is 6:15 in the morning and I am going to give up on sleep. The bunks are less than 30 inches wide and maybe 5 foot 10 inches long and as hard as anything else that we have slept on. I don't know how Andrew can fit. I get up to use the bathroom and brush my teeth. I can make it to the toilet room but there are no sinks at the far end of the car and at the nearer end there is a porter sleeping on the floor, the incredibly nasty, dirty floor, and I can't get to them. Of course we don't use...

Jan 24, 2013 - Ha Long Bay to Hanoi and the overnight sleeper train to Hue

Ha Long Bay to Hanoi and the overnight sleeper train to Hue Thursday January 24, 2013 Day 15 of G I  get up early to try and and get dawn photos from the deck. It is a little too hazy but still beautiful. We have our first breakfast at 7:30. It is fairly basic, especially compared to the other meals on the boat but nice. Fried eggs, toast, the wonderful little bananas that I will miss so much when i leavve Asia, dragon fruit, and "laughing cow" cheese of all things. We took the dinghy to the Son Sot Cave. It was remarkable but again with...

Jan 13, 2013 - Hue

We arrive in the ancient capital of Hue at 8.30 and head straight to the hotel for showers and breakfast. Refreshed again we head out to explore the city with a local guide and are surprised to find that the hotel was inside the walls off the citadel. We discover the vast and formerly magnificent imperial palace; a pagoda complex where monks and part-shaved novices are doing spring cleaning washing down all the surfaces and sanding and painting exhibits including the car that was driven to the capital by a monk in1963 who then set fire to...

Jan 13, 2013 - Hue

Brian had a good sleep on the train he said; Eke less so but enough to greet a new day! We arrived in Hue at about 8.30am. A bus was waiting for us and we were transported to our hotel. We checked in, still had some breakfast and then hit the showers! The water in the shower was hot to begin with, but cold at the end of Eke’s shower. Instead of having a cold shower, Brian decided he needed a break from going out again. He stayed at the hotel while Eke joined the rest of the group on a half day tour of Hue. The group tour started at the...

Nov 16, 2012 - Waterfalls, Bikes, Water Buffalos and Cockroaches

Hello, I have no idea where the past 2 and a bit weeks have gone. Once I sort my pictures out I will send them out so everyone can see them, I just haven't had anytime to do it yet. The waterfall I mentioned in my last blog was beautiful, it was a mission to get there but it was worth it. I'm so glad I wore sensible shoes as we had to climb over massive rocks to get there. I didn't go swimming at the falls, as I wasn't feeling great but most of the group went for a dip. A few of them jumped from the rocks about 10 meters from the water, one...

Nov 14, 2012 - Hue

Arrived at 11:00 am and made my way to the city center where all the packer hotels are. I splurged and went for a room with a balcony for $10.00. After getting settled in the hotel, I took a rickshaw to the old town and toured the citadel (PIC TO FOLLOW). Today I rented a scooter and toured the country side, emperors tombs and the pagodas. I will post pictures when I can find a fast net connection. I am still meeting lots of folks from all over, even a few Americans, and enjoying some unusual dishes . Up date to Hue, Just spent 45 min...

Oct 4, 2012 - Hue

On our last day in Ninh Binh, we caught an overnight train to Hue. Our luck was good for this train: it was clean, reasonably comfortable and not crowded so that we were the only occupants of our sleeping compartment that holds four. Our luck ran out next time, but more of that later. Hue was the capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945 under the last Vietnamese dynasty. Set on the Perfume River, it has a colonial feel to it notwithstanding the Citadel and Imperial Enclosure. Or perhaps in part because of those, since the dynasty was beholden...

Sep 4, 2012 - Hue

We were awakened with another musical selection about the Glorious Reunification playing over the train's PA system, as our tour guide promised. I had slept surprisingly well despite being in a cot which was several inches too small for me. The train had arrived in Hue more or less on time, making the 700 km journey in just over 14 hours. We had to deboard rather quickly, and while hastily packing my things up in the dimly lit cabin, I think I left my belt behind (not a huge disaster, since I'm certainly not losing any weight eating fried...

Sep 3, 2012 - En route to Hue

Most of today was spent in transit. After breakfast, we boarded a bus which took us back to Hanoi. On the way back, our Ha Long tour guide, who told us to call him "Chi", told us a little bit about the history of Vietnam and the role that Ho Chi Minh played in the formation of Vietnam's current government. We got back to the Asian Ruby in the early afternoon, and we had a few hours to kill before boarding our night train to Hue. Since we didn't have hotel rooms to go back to (we had checked out the day before), I spent most of that time...

Aug 8, 2012 - Hoi An to Hue

After breakfast and collecting my skirt (and purchasing another one) we left Hoi An for the four hour drive to Hue, the last imperial capital of Vietnam. We visited the Cham Museum in Da Nang along the way. The Champa people were originally from Polynesia and ruled the central part of Vietnam during the 14th Century. There are 400,000 left in the entire world with 170,000 in Vietnam. We drove up and over the famous Hai Van Pass (Sea Cloud) with views along the coastline. Hue is also in the central coastal area. Here we visited the Imperial...

Jun 25, 2012 - The DMZ

I arrived in the city of Hue (pronounced "hway") near the Ben Hai River which had formed the border between North and South Vietnam. The 5 km strip of land on either side of the river was originally set up as a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) but, in fact, became one of the most militarized regions in the world--with the North Vietnamese positioning troops there and with Americans bombing the area with impunity. I had the chance to take a day-long tour of the area, something I was very interested in. We mostly traveled along Highway 9 which is...