Asia at its best — Part II
We arrived to Huê by train. We booked first class tickets, not because we were hoping for a bit of luxury, quite the opposite. We heard a few stories, we thought first class may be the closer to the second class quality we are accustomed to in Europe. Well, it was not quite that. The car was in much need of TLC, not to mention the toilet. Disappointingly, there were no chickens in the cart - no live ones anyway — although they would have fit right in, and would have enhanced the lively atmosphere. The TV which had the same theater show playing on loop for the duration of the journey provided us with a constant background noise and the passengers tried to shout over it and have conversations. The car was mostly full. Few tourists, but mainly locals. I suspect not everyone had a ticket to this car — our seats were taken when we boarded and the guy only moved a few rows ahead to another empty seat when we arrived. We also learnt that the locals prefer to travel laying down rather than sitting. The seats are reclining extensively, almost fold down to a bed, and people are making the most of this reclining feature even when someone is sitting behind them. Because they are small, it actually works well. Trouble is when someone taller is sitting behind, they end up in their lap. We watched an Aryan specimen trying to fend an old women off throughout the journey — she would recline her seat to the point that she would, quite literately, be in his lap. Clearly a gentleman, he lifted his book a bit more so this does not dangle in front of her face. Then, every time she got up from her seat to use the loo, or take some food across the isle to her travel companion, he would reach in front, reset her chair — not fully, just to the point that she is not entirely in his lap and he can hold his book comfortably. Upon her return, first thing she sets the chair straight back down. Must admit, we found this a lot more entertaining than the theater on TV.
Then there was the service. Have to give it to them, it was something else— everyone received a free bottle of water when boarded the train and a wide variety of cooked food was in constant flow. You certainly do not see such an extensive offer anywhere on the trains in Europe.
There is also electricity so you can charge all your devices, and some came well prepared to use take full advantage of this. ( See pic. 1)
Huê served as the capital city during the Nguyen dynasty and boasts the Imperial City with a number of enclosures including the Forbidden City which was home to the emperor, shrines, temples, gardens, and the royal theater, all surrounded by a 2m thick and 10km long wall as well as a moat. It also has a military base still in use today. Although badly damaged more recently by the wars — only about 20 buildings are still standing out of the original 148 — it is a very compelling place to spend a day and get a glimps of the stunning Vietnamese imperial architecture inspired by the Chinese style. They also do several shows a day in the old, now beautifully restored, theater which is a good way to get a flavor of what royal entertainment used to be about.
Just outside of one of the exit gates, directly opposite the road, there is another museum with relics from the recent American -Vietnam war placed in full view of the by-passers — tanks, armored vehicles, machine guns, fighter jets and a helicopter. It is a rather paradoxical view with the colorful and elaborate, verging on grandiose, architectural structures of the last Vietnamese dynasty just next door.
And then just across the road, there is this:
The sheer size of some of the vehicles, the visible scars left by the confrontations are quite intimidating, and overall a very poignant experience!
We only had a full day in Huê and did not have time to visit any of the imperial tombs, but no doubt would have been well worth. Alas, it was time to move on. We liked the citadel, but in general the city was somewhat strange. We found people were perhaps less friendly than in Hanoi, we were being offered a wide variety of substances on virtually every corner by men on scooters appearing and disappearing from one minute to the other, and we were struggling with good street-food in the evening, which we became very fond of. There are plenty of good restaurants around, but took us a while to suss out where to go for a genuine, good local grub. We did, however, find one during our last night! We were ready to move on.
In 2015 only 2% of the Vietnamese households owned a car while over 86% had a scooter or a motorbike. From what we have seen, the situation is still much the same today. Neither of us have a motorcycle licence, but we felt it would be cheating if we were to leave the country without braving the Vietnamese roads on a motorbike. Back in Phong Nha we had an interesting discussion with one of our local hosts about the recent changes in Vietnamese living standards, economy and his experience about building a business in the country. As an example for his aspirations, he mentioned a very successful family operation that does motorbike tours further south. We decided to look them up. They were offering a day trip from Huê to Hoi An which was our next destination. Perfect! Booking was extremely easy and quick. I received a reply to my inquiry within minutes with all options and details listed, and a few emails later we were booked! The Le Family Riders were also on time too to pick us up from the hotel, to the minute! Maybe we got the Vietnamese traffic all wrong! We both had a personal driver and were riding for the day on the back of the bike with a small group. My driver was a small, fragile looking woman, probably my age or little younger. Nice, friendly, and she had an unmistakable air of determination. I felt instantly safe. It would have been an adventure just getting from Huê to Hoi An by motorbike, but this was so much more than a what we bargained for. We stopped on the way to have a swim, we were treated with a great seafood lunch in a floating restaurant and visited a sacred mountain with great views and several Buddhist caves. The trip went smoothly, although there was a near miss when one of the group members, who decided to drive herself, was almost pushed off the road by a small truck while overtaking on the inside. It is a done thing in Vietnam, she just didn't do it quick enough as demonstrated by the pros. She had a lucky escape though. Later she filled us in that she doesn't exactly have a licence yet and only recently took a few driving classes in the UK. What a fine place to get some practice in and clock up some miles!
Hoi An was more a busy seaside resort than the ancient port we were expecting. Albeit a pretty town, it was crowded with tourist, both international and Vietnamese. Streets packed with merchants who were trying a wide variety of tricks to coax you into buying something from them, and a multitude of restaurants, bars, clubs and at least as many temples, shrines and pagodas all around town.
And tailoring shops everywhere. Hoi An is famed for speedy custom clothing.
Apart from sampling various food specialities that the place is known for, we also visited My Son which is probably the longest inhabited site in Indochina. It is an old Champa place with ruined Hindu temples dedicated to Shiva, the goddess of destruction and transformation in the Trimurti concept. Once again, the vast majority of the site was destroyed during a single week of bombing in the war with the US. The constructions date back between 4th and 14th century. There is not much information available and parts of the site are still being excavated, nonetheless a fascinating place – the ornate walls and the smooth, red brick work with cut-in decoration, a technique which to this day is not fully understood. Not too much wandering around outside the excavated boundaries though as apparently there is still landmine hazard.
We also came across a little hidden museum and art gallery which was probably our favourite in Hoi An — a French artist collected and displayed a wide variety of traditional costumes from all over the country adding personal stories to each. Some of these are apparently very rare now, only a handfull of people own a such garments in the villages and in some cases the last of its kind is on display here. Colorful and mind-bogglingly complex patterns. All handmade. It was good to see that someone is making an effort in spite of very little personal connection to the culture, to study these, preserve and show them to the world. Some impressive photography on display as well from Rehahn.
On our last day in Hoi An, we decided to go off the beaten track and ended up having an unforgettable Saturday lunch with the locals. We were tired of the busy streets and being harassed by vendors and just wanted a peaceful bite to eat. So we went just slightly outside of the old town, and in an instant, the streets got a lot more quiet. At one point, we were slightly worried that maybe there is only residential houses where we are going, although we were following a recommendation for a restaurant. On the bank of the river, all of a sudden there it was. Busy. With locals. No tourists. No one was even looking at us nor trying to tempt us in. Must be a good sign! We went in. The waiters seemed very young, we guessed probably even underaged. They were looking at us shyly from the corner of their eyes but neither of them would come over. Eventually we managed to organise two beers and a menu with pictures. They were avoiding us again. Very unusual, we thought. Clearly this place has not seen many tourists. The guy sitting at the table behind us with a friend and a case of beers, mostly empty now, after shouting at the waiter boys a couple of times, stood up and came over to our table to take our order. He even recommended a garlicky morning glory dish with some beef in his broken English that we ended up enjoying thoroughly. Eventualy we realised he is the owner having his day off, and the waiters are the sons helping out. Everything went smoothly from there — we learned how to replenish our beers, and food was arriving steadily. We even started making friends with the sourranding tables. We were bought beers in exchange for a picture with the “big white woman” and a the restaurant manager, after 5 minutes of very direct and personal questioning from his part, decided to try to sell us some postcards since we were there anyway. The first one he showed us was of Tower Bridge in London….We sensed he wasn’t going get himself a deal today. He also realised this shortly, and his dissapointment was quite apparent. To distract him from his sorrow, Bálint started doing figureskating jumps and pirouettes in the middle of the restaurant floor. It worked.
He insisted we became Facebook friends, and then, as his wife and baby were running out of patience, it was time to go. We asked for the bill. We were presented with this:
Math is not my strong point, and I suspect it it does not improve with a few beers — unlike my language skills, this, however, just did not add up. Sure we can’t read Vietnamese and therefore can’t really challege what it says, but it matched vaguely the number of items we ordered, except that based on our calculations on what we were expecting to pay, this was grossly underestimated. Bálint made several attempts to point out the mistake, but received big smiles, handshakes and a friendly taps on the back. With nothing left to do, we payed up, allotted a generous tip and left our new fiends to it.
our last stop in Vietnqm was HCM. Tiredness and heat took the last bit of energy out of us to do anything overly active so we just got lost on the streets, caught up for lunch stretching into dinner with our british friends and tried to get ready for the Cambodian adventure.
