Weed in Phnom Penh

The hotel was great and it was also in a great location for some of Phnom Penh's sites of interest and restaurants & bars. A short stroll past the National Museum took us into a street full of restaurants, bars and ubiquitous tuk tuk drivers. As soon as tuk tuk driver sees a tourist anywhere he will ask them if they want a tuk tuk - every time, all the time. It was really quite irritating at first but we soon learned the best way to deal with it was to avoid any eye contact and just ignore them. Bless them, some of them would try so hard, come up claiming to be your brother, being curious ('where are you from') and even trying a little dance to impress.

As we looked for somewhere to eat on the first night a number of tuk tuk drivers touted for business and we politely declined and then one in a hushed voice said, "Do you want to buy some cannabis?" and showed us a little plastic bag full of green leaves! We left him as soon as we could!!

Dinner was a 'get to know our surroundings' type meal. We had left it until 8pm or so to eat and for many places in Cambodia this is late. some of the items we tried to order were not available and this was to prove the case in quite a few places we ate at in Cambodia. The food we had was tasty and well presented and looked far better than what we had seen at the bus stop place on the border earlier in the day.

As you might expect in a poor country, the street lighting and the lighting in the restaurants was generally low wattage so the streets were quite dark when we walked back towards the hotel. But despite this, we felt relatively safe walking the streets.

Very near the hotel we passed a friendly looking bar and were soon ushered in by a charming young man. We met some interesting people including a crazy Scot called Joe who had spent the last 11 months running a tourist boat service in the south of the country. He was a real hoot!

The bar was putting on a cabaret show but it did not start until 11pm and I was very tired so by 10:30 we said our good-byes and went back to the hotel

Despite the bed being made of concrete (with a real mattress on top of course!), I had a great night's sleep.

Oasis in a Bustling City

The tuk tuk approached the hotel up a little and dubious looking alley. Outside a rather big and solid looking sliding gate a young man with a big smile approached us and took our heavy bags with ease. We passed the gate and into what looked to be the beginnings of nice stay at a lovely hotel.

The hotel was very tastefully if a little bizarrely furnished. the furniture in the room was mostly made of concrete - a concrete bed frame, concrete desk, concrete sofa and even a concrete ledge on the wall with a reinforcing iron bar underneath on which to hang clothes! It was great - very simple but effective.

Right outside the room and for the first time on the trip, there was a pool! It looked great and it was not long until I was swimming in the clear (but slightly warm) water.

The hotel staff were a little shy of a tall white man but there smiles were beaming. this was going to be a nice place to stay (despite an odd smell in the bathroom every now and again!)

The Fields of Cambodia

A few miles out of the frontier crossing town, things started to look up. A rural environment replaced the dusty and dirty scene that first greeted me. It immediately struck me that Cambodia is so much poorer than Vietnam, but I could see from the smiles of the people that they were happier than most of the Vietnamese seemed to have been. The scene of rice fields, water buffalo and tall palm trees across the landscape was very tranquil looking and it was hard to imagine what it must have been like during the deep dark days of the Pol Pot regime just 30 years ago.

For most of the journey towards Phnom Penh, the road was in good condition and not too busy. The bus driver though had to keep his wits about him as the cows that were roaming freely often decided to cross the road right in front of our bus. We got to use to sudden and unexpected braking!

After about 2 hours on the Cambodian roads, the bus pulled up in another 'Wild West' looking town - time to cross the mighty Mekong river! The bus gingerly went down a rather steep and muddy slope onto a waiting ferry that was already laden with overloaded trucks and shiny 4WDs. The journey across took just under 10 minutes and it was nice to see the river we would see a lot more of later in the trip. There were some very poor kids on the bus who started singing in front of my bus window in attempt to get me to give them something. What they didn't realise is that windows on the bus did not open. Hopefully someone else was able to five them something for their supper!

As we approached Phnom Penh, the traffic levels increased dramatically and the quality of the road deteriorated. It was a busy scene on the streets with all sorts of small industries on the go and simple market stalls set out with fruit. There is though a very obvious wealth gap in Cambodia. There was a start contrast between the bright shiny 4WD vehicles with blacked out windows and small trucks carrying 40+ people in a rudimentary truck taxi arrangement. I did sit a little uneasy in my comfy luxury bus seat when I saw the cramped conditions of other travellers.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and it was a busy city with motorcycles and tuk tuks vying for space. The old French way of 'priority coming onto a roundabout' caused the expected chaos of such a bizarre rule and the roundabout was a clogged mess of a wide variety of vehicles.

the bus was met my a throng of tuk tuk drivers and after our less than happy experiences of attempts to 'over-charge' us in Vietnam we expected the worse. Happily the tuk tuk driver that approached us offered us such a reasonable fare to the hotel that we accepted it! Off we went through the mad traffic to the Blue Lime Hotel.

Frontier Town

It was with renewed anticipation that we headed out of Saigon on our 6 hour bus journey to Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

The bus company provided assistants on board who managed all the immigration paperwork and this proved to be a blessing as the whole process seemed a bit chaotic. After clearing Vietnamese immigration we entered a 200 metre stretch of a no-man's land up to the Cambodian border control point which beckoned. All the passports were taken from us and we were shuttled off to a restaurant while all the formalities were seen to by our helpful on-board assistants. The drive to the restaurant was a bit of a shocker... we had heard stories that parts of Cambodia were a bit like the Wild West and the border town seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Dusty streets, ramshackle buildings and some scruffy looking kids. there were even 'saloons' - well, Casinos actually and lots of them. These casinos are operated by Thais and attract Vietnamese gamblers. They all looked a bit dodgy to me and were probably money laundering for all types of unsavoury characters across SE Asia.

The roadside restaurant we stopped at made my heart sink. If the rest of Cambodia was like this, I was going to want to go back to Vietnam! Our fellow Vietnamese and Cambodian travellers jumped at the chance to have lunch while the rest of passengers (hungry) milled around wondering whether to risk the food that was piled up at the kitchen and that was piled up with flies. A rudimentary fly catcher in the kitchen helped me make up my mind to stay hungry for a while - it was a wooden board painted with some sticky substance and it was covered in hundreds of little fly corpses. I made do with a can of Coke and got back on the bus and wanted to get away as soon as possible.

Not exactly a great first impression of Cambodia but thankfully this was to prove to be superseded by many very positive impressions and experiences in the next 2 weeks!

Miss Saigon?

All through the two week trip in Vietnam the anticipation of something has mostly proved to be better than the actual experience. Highlights included the Cuc Phuong National Park in the north, the oldest tomb of the Emperor in Hue and the Memento Country Resort. The downsides have included the 'get as much money out of tourists as you can' approach encountered in many parts of the country. Most of the people are generally pleasant but there are more than a few that are out to tout.

Saigon proved to be much like the rest of the country. I was anticipating somewhere that was cosmopolitan and full of energy. It certainly was more cosmopolitan than Hanoi and there was a bit more energy but it felt more subdued than I was expecting. Perhaps the fact it was Re-unification Day holiday when I was there that led to the subdued atmosphere (the receptionist at the hotel was a little bemused when I asked if there were any parades for the holiday or the May Day holiday the next day). Perhaps the fact it rained quite a bit in the 2 days I was there put a dampener on things. Perhaps it was the fact I got my first tummy bug there that made me have a subdued feeling towards Saigon. Everything about the place was just OK - not great, not bad - just OK.

In hindsight, a week in Vietnam would have been long enough. I appreciate the country has a very turbulent recent history and it is probably little wonder that the people might have seemed a bit remote at times. I wish them well but it will probably be some long time before I go and visit again.

What's that Smell??

Train travel was second nature to us now and we were pretty sure of what to expect on this third and short 9 hour journey from Nha Trang to Saigon. We had not accounted for the fact that there was a 2 day public holiday (backed up to weekend) starting the next day and the train was quite busy. We thought we could not get any worse travelling conditions than the previous 2 trains...Wrong! This was the oldest carriage we had travelled in and it was in a really sorry state after the 20 hours from Hanoi. My request for clean sheets on the bunks was met with a blank look and a shrug by the cabin attendant. Our travelling companion on this leg of the trip was a young man with a number of small bags, including a rather large tied up yellow plastic bag that he put under his berth... we thought we could smell a funny smell then but didn't think too much about it. The young man was not prepared for his trip though as he seemed to have no food with him. Being the seasoned train travellers we had become, we came well stocked with food and he accepted everything we offered him with a smile and a nod of his head. He became curious when he saw me working on a crossword in a puzzle magazine I had brought along. Curious probably because the longest words we saw anywhere in Vietnam seemed to be only five letters long! The crossword puzzle makers would be hard pushed to make a challenging cross word puzzle shape in Vietnamese. I wonder if anyone ever gets a 7 letter word in the local version of Scrabble? Vietnamese, for those curious readers out there, is a tonal language and although the length of words is relatively short, there appears to be a multitude of dots, curly lines, little hats etc...over the vowels that make the About 5 hours into the 9 hour journey, the slight smell we noticed at the beginning of the journey was getting more pervasive and it was obviously coming from the young man's yellow carrier bag under his berth. We then realised he must be taking some of Nha Trang's local speciality', fermented fish(!!), to someone in Saigon - rather them than me I say! Needless to say some deep breaths were inhaled when we got off the train and we waved a thankful goodbye to the young man with the smelly yellow bag

Hey Jimmy!

The owner of the Memento Resort was not present on site during our stay but he obviously had heard about the dinner 'incident' 2 evenings before from one of the staff. We had not complained and assured him we were more than happy with everything. He was pretty adamant that he wanted to make it up to us and he insisted that we take a complimentary ride on the Memento horse and cart through some of the local villages. Thinking this would be too touristy we tried to politely decline but he would have none of it. So the horse was brought in from the neighbouring field and given a good scrub down while we ate breakfast. It was then hooked up to the cart and we climbed aboard and trooted off. Our driver spoke little English but did tell us the horse was called Jimmy! Jimmy proved to be less than willing to get above any speed than a sedate trot. The driver was having none of it a Jimmy was soon 'encouraged' to give it all he could! The cart bounced around and I nearly fell out of the back while Jimmy galloped off down the road. Thankfully Jimmy had other ideas and soon slowed down to a more sedate (and more comfortable) trot. We waved at the locals and their smiles back seemed genuine and the trip seemed less touristy than we thought. Jimmy stopped a couple of times to undertake his morning consitutionals although there was a distinct lack of roses for the fresh steaming piles of Jimmy poo to go on any where. A local free wandering bull provided the next exciting installment of the journey and Jimmy needed little encouragement to gallop off away from him. The journey through the countryside was really fun in the end and the resort owner was more than right to insist that we take the ride. Our stay at Memento was at an end and we reluctantly left in the taxi to take our third and final train ride down to Ho Chi Minh City (better known as Saigon)

A Nice Quiet Day

After the excitement of the mud bath the previous day and the fact that Nha Trang quite frankly was not as an appealing beach town as some would have you think (it is supposedly the most popular beach town in Vietnam), we decided to explore our immediate surroundings. It was hot, very hot, and the longish walk into the village area was undertaken slowly. We were slightly off the usual tourist track so the sight of a tall sweaty Englishman walking through the village certainly raised the curiosity of many, especially the school children riding past on their over sized bicycles. The local eating establishments did not look like they were open for lunch so we bought a couple of baguettes and few triangles of "Laughing Cow' processed cheese to have back at our room. It was the least adventurous meal we had had since starting the trip. After bread and cheese, we finished off our grand meal with the fallen mango we had retrieved from the resort's garden the day before - it was a bit stringy and probably would have been best left for the local fauna to enjoy. During lunch the sky turned black and the heavens opened and it rained for most of the rest of the daylight hours.We had 'warned' the staff that we would be eating dinner that night and we set a time of 7pm. At 6:55pm there was a knock at the door to say our table was ready. We sat down a little after 7pm and ordered within 5 minutes... then waited...and waited...waited a bit longer. Nearly 50 minutes later the food all arrived at once. It was worth waiting for and was easily the best meal we had eaten on the trip yet. A very nice and most relaxing day.

Lost in Translation

After the day's pampering in the mud bath, I had worked up quite an appetite. We arrived back at Memento a little bit late by local standards, just before 8pm. There was little sign of activity in the place and most of the lights were out. We managed to find two members of the staff and we told them that we would like some dinner. There was a confused look on their faces and so I resorted to doing a Basil Fawlty type impressions of someone eating. Suddenly a look of understanding came across their faces and they set off purposely in the opposite direction of the restaurant area and into the dark night. A few minutes later they triumphantly re-appeared out of the gloom with beaming smiles and handed me a couple of toothbrushes!!! They seemed a little displeased when we burst out laughing. Following a further, but more detailed Basil Fawltyesque impression they understood what we wanted. They did not seem to eager to feed us. Nearly everything we wanted was not available - probably thinking we were eating out that night, the staff probably whooped it up and ate everything for themselves. A little later a reasonable dinner of fish with rice and vegetables was served up but curiously there was no beer available....maybe the staff had drunk all that too?

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

The Memento country resort outside of Nha Trang was so tranquil and although it was not quite surrounded by verdant paddy fields as their website suggested, it was nonetheless a lovely place. The staff were so helpful but between them they only spoke as many English words as I can speak Vietnamese ones...not very many! Pointing and actions were the order of the day. After some amusing attempts, we managed to get a taxi into town. We were off to another "Hot Springs' type resort - one with hot mud baths!

On the way we had the taxi driver stop at a 'bank' to change money. It seems that the higher denomination the note, the better exchange rate you get. I gave the guy two US$50 bills and he seemed happy until he saw that the president on the note had been 'vandalised' with comedy glasses and a rather fetching goatee in blue biro! Suddenly the favourable rate was reduced and when I produced two twenties and a ten to make up for the 'defaced' note, they reverted back to their original ex-rate. It seems that President Grant with comedy moustache would hold his value after all!

The hot springs were right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood but there were lots of people paying to get in so we thought it would be OK. As with previous buying tickets experiences in Vietnam, this was complicated! We ended up opting for 20 minute hot mud bath followed by the use of the hot springs swimming pools and jacuzzi baths.

Changing into swim gear was straightforward and with our green VIP towels (they distinguish who is entitled to what by the colour of their towels), we were led to a large wooden bath that was filled with hot muddy water in no time. The hype once again did not live up to experience. the hot mud apparently is drawn up from a hot spring 100 meters deep and should have been just under 40 degrees Centigrade. It was a bit cooler than that and there were suddenly doubts that the mud with it's cure all skin diseases properties was sat in by other people earlier in the day.... recycled mud?!? Doubts were cast aside and in we got. The wooden bath was quite slippy and I nearly dunked my head under the yellowish muddy water. It was not as hot as I was expecting nor was it as sticky as I was probably hoping. The idea was to dunk yourself in the mud for about 20 minutes,then to lie in the sun for 15-20 minutes to set the mud and then to rinse thoroughly under clean hot mineral water. As the mud did not stick, most of it had slid off me by the time I had reached the sun lounger. What little mud that did stick to me did not have a chance to dry on me as I was sweating so much because the sun was so hot! The most mud I had to wash off was stuck inside my swim suit! It was quite amusing to wash it out in a public shower with as much decorum as I could muster!

After the mud it was time for a hot mineral water hydro massage! This involved walking barefoot in between two stone walls...I mention barefoot because the floor was lined with 'massage' cobbles which really hurt! The hydro massage was intense blasts of hot mineral water coming from many holes, most of them at the wrong height and angle for certain delicate body parts! My hands got a good hydro massage as I used them to shield more my more delicate areas! Next was a 15 minute soak in some very warm mineral water, this was actually much better than the mud and felt great.

After all that excitement the posters surrounding the place were re-assuring me that I would no longer have leprosy or a host of debilitating skin conditions.. I was slightly skeptical and thinking that if the mud bath mud had been re-cycled, I could end up with a host of debilitating skin conditions!

Following a fairly good lunch and an even better large bottle of ice-cold Huda Beer, it was time for a nap in the VIP sun loungers - only green towels allowed. This rule was of course ignored by everyone and as soon as I lay down I had neighbours either side of me curious at the beginnings of my 'backpacker tan' lines. After the nap (well I lay there with eyes closed trying to ignore the stares from my neighbours), I went for a swim in the 'bath water' hot pool - no endurance swimming possible there, it was soooo hot! It took an age to cool off especially as I decided to forgo a second cooling beer to help bring my internal temperature down.

The combination of mud, hot sulphur mineral water bathing and hydro-therapy meant it was time for a refreshing shower and get changed. The less than delightful and unhelpful towel monitors insisted there were no showers, but there were, in the ladies changing area. That was no deterrent and a cool refreshing shower and good lathering of my hair soon had me squeaky clean and smelling heaps better! The ladies changing behind the thin curtains didn't seem to mind me being there.

The whole spa experience cost about six pounds...not too much but I don't think I will be returning any time soon.

Momento of Memento?

Arriving at a country hotel in the middle of the night is always as interesting experience. Greeted by two yapping Chihuahua dogs was not the welcome that was expected and their jumping up and scratching my legs was not particularly welcome - I don't like Chihuahua dogs! A couple of men carried the bags off into the dark and we followed. It seemed there was no lighting of any note! We arrived at the room - no need to register or show our passports - and left to go to bed. It was about 11pm and that is well past the bedtime of most country-folk in Vietnam! the room was in a thatched cottage and had mud walls. There was mosquito netting over the bed...hmmm...better use it if it is there I suppose. There was an air-conditioner though, thank goodness for some modern conveniences. No television, no phone and apart from a desk with a small chair, not a lot else in the room. Off to bed...wondering what the view would be like in the morning.

After a good night's sleep, the sound of birdsong woke me up. Bright sunlight was shining under the door and I went to take a peak outside. We were in a lovely garden with fruit trees and a water wheel right outside the room. It looked wonderful and seemed to confirm a good decision to pick this place rather than a beach hotel in nearby Nha Trang which we had heard less than glowing reports about.

Attentive staff suddenly appeared ushering us towards a breakfast table under a thatched awning and overlooking the gardens. This was a nice place and had such a relaxing feel to it.

After a delightful breakfast, with a cup of the best Vietnamese coffee yet on the trip, we explored the gardens and discovered all sorts of different fruits growing. A mango fell off a tree right beside us and we spirited it off to our room to eat later!

Another train ride

All the sights in and around Hue seen, time to move on further south. This means another train ride but thankfully during the daytime and no need to climb under dubious blankets and sleep on even more dubious sheets! The trip from Hue to Nha Trang was about 9 hours.

The first part of the journey was a spectacular climb up mountains by the sea on the way to Danang -- this 50km section took over 2 hours but the snail-paced speed of the train was more than offset by the magnificent views.

Our fellow passenger was a local business man who seemed to be making the trip all the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh but we were not sure because we were unable to communicate verbally. He was a pleasant enough chap but did not seem to understand what the non-smoking signs in the compartment meant!

We ate train food on this leg and it was OK'ish I suppose. I was a little worried about food hygiene but it seemed OK. The ubiquitous cans of beer to wash it down were on hand. So far my use of beer as a prophylactic against a dodgy tummy seemed to be working well.

After Danang we went through mile after mile of very fertile farm land. There was some rice harvesting going on - all of it by hand! We also seemed to pass tens of cemeteries with hundreds if not thousands of graves/tombs - all brightly coloured. There were also tombs in groups of 5-10 in many paddy fields too.

The train arrived in Nha Trang just about on time - another impressive performance by Vietnam Railways. We were met by a pre-arranged taxi and headed off for our hotel in the opposite direction of most of our fellow travellers. They were heading off to the beach hotels while we were heading inland for what we hoped would be a lovely rural retreat...

Incensed in Hue

Ever wondered how incense/joss sticks are made? No? Me neither. I have though now seen them made by hand in Hue. First, get some bamboo sticks and dip them in some bright ink of your choosing and then dry them in the sun. Second get some ground sandalwood, cinnamon and a few other ingredients and mix them up until you get a brown gooey blob. Then, after several years of experience roll out this goo into a very long thin sausage and roll a bamboo stick into it, dry in the sun and there you go, an incense stick! Pack 20 together and then sell 5 packs at time for US$1! How do they make a living doing that?

Hue - an ex-Imperial City

Hue was the seat of the Vietnamese Emperors from the early 19th Century. Although The Vietnamese were 'subjugated' to Chinese rule for a 1,000 years they were allowed the odd Emperor or two. There was a Forbidden Palace, very much like the more famous one in Beijing, China, however, as American Forces in the Vietnam War decided to flatten nearly 90% of it, there is not so much to see now. Curiously for a Communist government, there is now a programme of restoration works going on. frankly, the money would probably be better spent on infrastructure projects! The Emperors seemed obsessed with the size and grandeur of their tombs. Some of them spent ages on the designs and trying to ensure that their graves were not robbed. Emperors in Vietnam were buried with jewels in their mouths amongst other things!

A day was spent was touring the former imperial sites including some of the grand tombs. The last Emperor to have a grand tomb was buried in the mid 1940's and by that time, the craftsmen were using concrete to create them. Subsequently most these tombs now need the most renovation!

It was a hot, hot day but I visited all the sites and endured the 'funny' comments from the guide what apparently spoke "Standard English" - he must have learned it in a non-standard place. He would go on and on about some particular topic and then after 10 minutes would say, "Forget it, move along". Needless to say, there were some giggles during the day.

The first Emperor to have a specially constructed tomb, created the best with really beautiful gardens. i can't imagine the man in the street back in the 1840's would have been so happy that so much was lavished on one dead man's burial!

I will not describe in detail all the tombs and if you are interested in learning more there are plenty of websites that can provide all the background.

Hot Springs - Pouring Rain

Some parts of Vietnam are blessed with hot springs and one such place was not far from Hue. Some negotiations with various hotel staff on the best rate for a driver were concluded satisfactorily and the driver headed off towards Thahn Tan Hot Springs, a 90 minute drive. Thahn Tan Hot Springs advertises itself as a place to cure all manner of ailments and sounded like a grand European Spa to compare with the great spas of Germany and France. Hmmm...one thing you learn while travelling in Vietnam is that anticipation is quite often better than the actual event. The weather looked increasingly bad and the rapidly deteriorating condition of the road (or should I say track?) started to cause a little bit of concern. Then, some 500 metres from the Spa, the road improved dramatically and the sense of anticipation increased accordingly!

The ticket buying process was a bit complicated - it seems, despite the rather ghoulish advertising pictures showing European types enjoying the spa, that not many foreigners frequented the place. Taking the top price ticket (about $6) we were led to the 'VIP' area of the Spa Resort. There was no one around other than staff, we had the place to ourselves it seemed. The pools and equipment looked a little, shall we say, quaint and a bit antiquated but it looked clean and tidy. A gate heralded the 'VIP' section and someone to escort us to the lockers. We decided to look around first before partaking of the health giving waters. In the event, the surrounding countryside was rather beautiful other than severely threatening dark gray clouds looming on the mountain tops. The walk had some surprises and another encounter with the 'as big as your hand spiders' just feet from the footpath. The more pleasant surprises included some deer and wild pigs (secure behind a big fence!)

The hot water that supplies the spa comes from deep underground and emerges at a constant 68 deg C - slightly hotter than domestic hot water in most of our homes. The spa owners had built a series of streams with little dams every 15 metres or so. As the water travels slowly down the man made stream, it cools. The coolest part of the stream was a pleasant 34 deg C and then as you gradually work your past 5 dams you end up in water at about 45 deg C which was plenty hot enough for me. There were other pools where you could swim in 40 deg C water and also have a hot jacuzzi type bath. After several hours of getting in and out of the 'healing waters' my skin did feel softer but I did not feel much else. Just after lunch, the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down and the sky flashed lightning - it was actually quite a refreshing way to cool off after having been poached in the 45 deg C water!

Hue - City of Emperors

After the overnight trip on the train the hotel in Hue was most welcome - especially a long hot shower! The hotel room was nice with a big window, but no view to speak of. The actual view was just 6" from the window.... a brick wall. It seems rooms with view in Vietnam are not so common(?)

It was hotter in Hue than Hanoi and it was quieter too. There were still scooters everywhere but the pace here seemed less frantic. After not very much sleep on the train, it was a quiet day just exploring immediate surroundings around the hotel. There were more people offering 'tourist' help here than Hanoi although there was still some communication difficulties which led to more sign language and pointing when it came to ordering food. The people seemed friendlier than in Hanoi, but there is still a sense of something lacking in the people. They go about their business efficiently and seem happy enough but maybe they too sense the 'Big Brother is watching" feeling too.

Dinner was rather amusing. The hotel helped give instructions for the restaurant and off we went and pleased that the meter was running too. All was going well until we got into the old city and then every turn was further and further from where we should have been going. Frantic hand gestures and concerned voices expressing we should be going right not left went unheeded by the driver. After 5 minutes, we were dropped off at the restaurant that we wanted to go to the next night! Seems the tourists giving instructions were wrong and had indeed asked to be taken to the tomorrow restaurant a day early! Oh no, I was feeling a tad under-dressed in my shorts and t-shirt when I saw the other diners in much more appropriate attire for the grand surroundings. No-one seemed to mind and we went ahead with the 9-course set menu.

All Aboard the Non-sleeper Sleeper

Anticipation can sometimes be way above the reality and I did not dare get my hopes up about the overnight train from Hanoi to Hue (600+km to the south) even though a First Class soft sleeper ticket was in my hand. I was right not to get my hopes up.
Arriving at the station in the first taxi ride of the trip, I was though pleasantly surprised at how organised everything was prior to getting on the train. The government certainly know how to keep people employed in Vietnam as there were at least 3 people checking/punching my ticket before I even got aboard the train. I loaded up with bottles of water for the 11 hour trip not really knowing what to expect on board. The steps up into the carriage were perilously steep and someone I thought was a member of the multitude of staff kindly helped me on with my bag and even checked my ticket for the right berth number. He took all of about 20 seconds to do this and then put out his hand and said, "$5" - not even a please. Some choice words sprang to mind and I sent him packing, well nearly, he held a grudgingly given $1 bill in his 'helpful' fist - probably muttering obscenities under his breath just as I was doing under mine! This little incident did though make me fail to really look at my surroundings...Oh dear...if this was First Class I was only delighted in knowing that it had to be better than the other classes on the train. My fellow travellers in the 4 berth compartment had faces just as long as mine. We stowed bags, sat on the bottom berths and looked at each other - all of us knowing it would be a long night. The air-conditioning could not be controlled in the compartment and it was like a fresh day in the Arctic tundra. We gestured to our 'cabin girl' who was patrolling outside, you guessed it, checking tickets, with the international gesture of trembling and clutching hands to sides of arms, generally shaking and going , "brrrrrr" a lot. Minutes later the cold air blast stopped and then the rest of the night it was unbearably hot in the compartment!
It was not all negative, there were sheets, pillows and blankets..something to be happy about until one of my cabin mates said, "do you think these are clean?" The rest of night was spent dealing with phantom itches and wondering if the crawling feeling on my skin was little critters or the fact that it was so hot in the compartment. If there is something they can do well in Vietnam though, it is running trains on time. at precisely 11:00pm the train slowly pulled out of Hanoi station on it's 2 day journey to Ho Chi Minh City. After about 30minutes of some small talk, my cabin mates started crawling into their bunks. Lights out. Try as I might, I could not get to sleep in my First Class Soft Sleeper bed, the train was really rocking and rolling along the narrow gauge track and the driver just loved using his brakes whenever he had the chance. Finally I drifted off into a fitful sleep and then....... the door of the compartment opened, the lights came on and I felt someone tickling my right foot! It was the 'cabin girl' waking me up to tell me my stop was approaching. I mumbled something not very appropriate, knowing my stop was at least 7 hours away when she realised she had made a mistake, she needed to wake up a guy in the next set of bunks!!! The four of us grumbled and groaned and tried, but failed, to get back to sleep. Oh well, at least we got to watch the sun rise over the spectacular countryside. There were people working in the emerald green paddy fields from before 6:00am. The train trundled it's way towards Hue with the beautiful countryside passing by making up for the disappointing lack of sleep. I later found out that the average speed of the train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh is 48km/hour (about 30mph!)
We approached Hue station on time - not bad Vietnam Railways!

No room at the Hilton

The site of the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" is now mostly covered by a large Vietnam/Singapore joint venture hotel. Quite how the residents of the hotel can sleep soundly at night after countless horrors on the site over a hundred years of history is beyond me.

Originally the site of a small village, the French soon moved out all the villagers and built the infamous "Maison Locale" there. It was built to house the local population who objected to French colonial rule and used extensively until the French left in the 1950's. The Vietnamese regime that took over wasted little time in using the prison for their own purposes and even used the 2 guillotines in the prison for many years after the French left! The prison gained international notoriety (and the nick-name the "Hanoi Hilton") during the "American War" (as the the Vietnam War is called in Vietnam) when shot down American pilots were held there as POWs.

I don't think the room service was up to the standards of an international Hilton Hotel today!

There is a small corner of the original prison set up as a museum and it was quite interesting to read the history from a Vietnam perspective. Little reference was made about the torture and killing of the Vietnamese by their own people but lots was made (and none of it in a good way) about the French colonists and the American "terrorists" as they were described.

It was very sobering to see a real guillotine that actually beheaded a significant number of people over the years in "Maison Locale". It is obvious that the Vietnamese curators of museums are not squeamish about showing gruesome photographs of detached heads from a execution session in the 1930s! Thankfully the guillotine has not been used in Vietnam since 1960. Readers might be surprised to learn that the guillotine was last used in France in 1977!

Pick and Choose

Normally it is the customer who picks and chooses but in Hanoi there are some places where you can be point-blank refused any service. One particularly surly lady selling fruit in Hanoi made me laugh when she adamantly refused to sell me a couple of apples and a mango – not even an outrageous opening offer. She simply refused to do any business with me. Even the next day her mood was just the same and she refused to even make eye contact. A little way down the street from her little stall was a man (who was probably her brother) that tried to charge US$15 for a mango!! He was not prepared to enter into any negotiation. A few restaurants would not take my pleas for food seriously either and I was brushed off with a wave of the hand at several establishments – perhaps some bad experiences with fussy foreigners. Oh well, there were plenty of other places to buy fruit and eating establishments who were happy to feed me!