Sa Pa to Hue

The overnight trip on the Reunification Railway was another experience, I don’t think the train went over 40mph and most of the time it was slower.  Still, clean beds even if neither of us got much sleep due to the clanking and jolting.  This time we shared the cabin with two French Canadians they’d travelled to much of the same places we had but had arranged a “home-stay” in one of the minority villages, they thought it was great, the host got out the rice wine and drank so much with the guide that neither to host or their guide were seen in the morning. The guest bed room was in the old rice store above the main living area and came with its own blanket!  The home stays are considered a good thing by the Hmong people as they get $4 a night per couple for evening meal, bed and breakfast. We fancy this next time. Picture below is a Hmong village house, the home stay ones have to be a little smarter before the Government will allow them to be used for home stays but not much!

 We arrived back in Hanoi at 0545, the railway station at Hanoi is like a big goods yard with people swarming around the trains and across the tracks.  Our first plan had been to get the train down Hue and Hoi An, around the middle of the country, but it takes 16 hours by train and after the overnight to and from Sa Pa we’ve come to appreciate the benefits of being slightly grey haired backpackers with a decent credit card!  That said the flights were only few dollars more than the train.

Hue, it’s pronounced hew-ay, was the capital of Vietnam until recently and has loads of temples and tombs and a citadel on the banks of the Perfume River

We asked the hotel for a tour of the main sites as we’re not here long and at 0730 the next day they picked us up and we had a whistle stop tour of the city, a guide, buffet lunch with 50 Vietnamese dishes, a ride in a dragon boat to an ancient  garden house and back all for £10.

The most recent were only built in the late 1800s and early 1900s but look so much older.

Very bizarrly the trip surprised us by going to visit to a Kung Foo school, the students gave a demonstration - not to be missed and probably not to be repeated.

The return leg was by boat. the boatman and his wife lived in the small cabin at the back, she was making her lunch whilst we sailed.

Back at the hotel the manager asked us if we wanted a swim, they have an outdoor pool that is also a 15 metre long Jacuzzi, Carole lied when she said the water was warm though!

Bob and Jan’s tenner having a coffee by the side of the Perfumed River