Well I have to say Hanoi was much more enjoyable second time around... certainly the ridiculously wonderful hotel on the first night helped... (finely crafted iced Daquiris by the pool are apparently very acceptable to the other half...) but having had a good look around this time it turns out it is a nice town, and probably not far behind Saigon in many ways. Auckland/Wellington comparisons are probably valid in many ways...
We spent our second and third day wandering the streets, seeing a few sights... made it just too late to see Uncle Ho's corpse laid up in his mighty impressive mausoleum. Had a good look around the VN Army Museum which was predictably glorious in its glorious praise for the glorious struggle of the glorious people against all manner of foes... but not Pho's, which they like here. I am not sure they saw the irony of fighting off the Chinese aggressor for hundreds of years before welcoming their Chinese comrades in helping them fight off the West...
So then it was onto a night train for travels southward... I dearly love train travel but have to say the new "luxury" service that has been set up was a far cry from the pictures on the website. Considering air travel is now cheaper here than the train it is something of a sad state of affairs but there is still something awesome about boarding a train and thundering through the darkness, this time complete with and amazing lightning storm that blazed for hours out our window. I am not sure what the two Vietnamese businessmen we shared a sleeper cabin with made of us but they were nice enough given "hello" was all any of us could manage in each other's language. My traveling companion is as always an object of some fascination (South East Asian men give "eyes for Christmas" true meaning) and when she is in jandals her foot decoration is a source of considerable amazement (I keep reminding her only senior gang members have tattoos here...)
Our train finally rattle, jolted, squealed and clanked into Hue right on time at 0805 and we descended into a much quieter scene than we had left in Hanoi. A fairly large contingent of tourists (there are a LOT more white folk here than on my last trip, although still nothing compared to Thailand and the like) debussed and made their way to various taxis... I have been telling Lala for weeks that we are playing it by ear the whole way and there is nothing organised, but having made her carry her pack for about 2km after we left the Metropole the other day I decided that may be all the "roughing" she could handle for a while, so I piled her in a taxi and we took the short ride through quiet, serene Hue to La Residence (once the French Govenor's residence, now a rather nice hotel), which I booked weeks ago but didn't tell her about. I have to say the place is once again stunning and a fitting way for her to say "bye bye, I love you" to luxury travel before we start "doing it the hard way" for real.
www.la-residence-hue.com
So once through the formalities of meeting the management etc (ok I pitched it as a possible story, did the whole "travel journalist" thing and they gave us the first night free) we got shown to our (upgraded, thankyou) room overlooking the Perfume River and then we set out to explore a bit. Hue is exactly the tonic you need after Saigon and Hanoi... it's quiet, friendly, peaceful, hugely historic, the home of ancient kings, amazing food, awesome historic ruins, and it's right near the DMZ and lots or war stuff...
So here we are, a pleasant rain is falling outside, bringing the oppressive heat down a notch or two (I am slow to adjust these days, still sweating like a...) and a wicked thunder storm is brewing. Over the next couple of days we will explore the Citadel ruins and various other bits and pieces, and then from here we really ARE making it up as we go because my planning has run out and someone is going to have to learn to rough it Asian style (the hotel we stayed in the night after the Metropole was nicer and more expensive than anything I stayed in last time I was here and apparently the bathroom was "gross")... wish me luck!!!
Obscurely musical references today are brought to you by things I forgot to put on my iPod, chiefly the much-missed and insanely talented Sufjan Stevens... I would urge you to go listen to "John Wayne Gacy Jr" before anything else, and then go find some of his much happier tracks to clear that chill from down your spine.
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