All the way to Hue
We left Nihn Bin on the Night train, to Hue. (It's pronounced H-w-aa-y) *see title again for full rhyming cleverness*
Lets start with the night train. Well, we ain't in Japan anymore! We booked the top notch cabin- paying extra for a "soft birth". This means that your $38 buys you a "mattress" on the plank like bunk bed, and a pillow and blanket. The alternative is almost unthinkable, as the train not only left 2.5 hours behind schedule, but stopped randomly through out the night with no explanation. What is meant to be a 9 hour trip took us about 15, and imagine that on a hard seat?! We requested 2 bottoms bunks so that meant we had 2 other people on the top bunks. We got lucky on this one with some quiet Germans. "Sleeping" on a train like this is an experience all on its own, you can literally feel every bump, every rail and then there are the screeching, complete stops, that throw you to the wall of your tiny bunk. Needless to say it was less than a restful night, but we made it through with story to tell.
When we got to Hue we found our hotel and began the exploration. The city itself has a long history, as it was Capitol of Vietnam until 1945. Here we really started to see the southern influences, as it lays smack in the middle of Vietnam. It's location put it in a vulnerable position during the Vietnam War, many of you remembering the Battle of Hue in 1968. I won't go into the gory details but the city was left bombed and destroyed. This is a place many people tour the DMZ and see the tunnels and battle sites where Americans and Vietnamese lost their lives. This brought up so many questions for us, so that evening we watched a few documentaries, and did some further reading on some of the politics around the war. Being to young to really have felt the impact of this war, we were flabbergasted. In so many ways. I'm sure most of you reading this have your own memories of this time in history, but we had only the outline.
War is horrible, but there is a feeling that you get when you walk through a street that your country dropped an actual bomb on, and destroyed peoples lives. Knowing these things hasn't made the Vietnamese people bitter, or unwelcoming. They just keep on fighting, keep on persevering, and smile at us as we walk... But maybe I'll start saying I'm from Canada.
Hue is know for its vast Imperial City, and Citadel. The whole complex was pretty badly damaged during the bombing of the city, and they only have a small portion renovated. It is stunning, and it got progressively more desolate as we walked. I'll also note that here in the middle of Vietnam it is the rainy season, so the greens are greener and the clouds are threatening. We got lucky and had really good luck with the weather most days of our visit.
I'll let the pictures do the talking for a while.
We ended the night with some of Hue's specialty a rice muscle dish with all kinds of crunchies on top and some beers at the local bar, served with dried beef and lime...YUMMM
