24th January 2007
Writing this on the train from Hue to Hanoi. Nice stay in Hue with a good meal last night and a particularly good hotel – the ?. Got a really good night’s sleep and the cold has dried right up. Another early start with a choice of cycling (final day) or taking the bus. The group did half and half and Sid and I were in the half that took the bus. That’s because since we arrived in Hue it’s been constant drizzle. We knew the weather would change as we travelled north in Vietnam. The country has two totally different weather patterns from South to North. First we visited the Citadel – the old King’s palace as Hue was the original capital of Vietnam. It was interesting but paled in comparison to the Forbidden City in Beijing, to which it was similar. Except that the Hue Citadel only dates from the early 1800s and much of it has been rebuilt as it was a real target of the Tet Offensive bombing in 1968. The whole area around Danang and Hue was the stronghold of the guerrillas and the American bases and so a real hot spot for the Vietcong during the war. Interesting though.
From there we went to the Pagoda, the most important of the Buddhist temples, and as we’d missed the Pagodas in China – we gave the Big Goose Pagoda in Xi’an a miss as we were ‘cultured out’ – it was worth seeing. We then took a Dragon Boat ride along the Perfume River – what a lovely name, and it used to describe the smells along the river, but today, in the rain it was pretty, but no more. Bought a nice little wooden toy for Oscar – he’ll be ready for it in about a year! Then we visited the King’s tomb, but again, having been to the Ming Tombs outside Beijing, it was just another tomb! The coach, driver, bike ‘mechanist’ and bike truck driver have left us now and headed back to Saigon. Chi is still with us, of course.
But a good fun, day nevertheless. The highlight is proving to be this train journey. We boarded at 4.30 pm and will arrive in Hanoi at 5 am. It is the ‘Reunification Express’ though you’d never know it from the speed. We have got soft sleepers, and will be sharing with Norman and Beryl tonight, which is fine, as they’ve become pretty good friends.
At the moment there are ten people in our carriage, Norman is playing the guitar and we are having a great time – lots of red wine and beer. I’m loving this. Singing lots of ‘60s and ‘70s songs and folk songs to Norman’s guitar with probably half a dozen of us being ageing hippies, but those that are younger, loving it too. It really makes me appreciate how privileged we are to be doing this trip. I always regretted not travelling more as a kid/student – only did some backpacking in Europe/Scandinavia - for about six weeks each time and then had to work to get through college, and then like most of us had kids, mortgages etc to pay. So I am loving every moment of this trip and will probably get more from it now than I would have then. And it doesn’t feel like we’re dong it ‘too late’ as it might have done, because the company has been great. Not a single ‘moaner’ on this group and out of 17 people that must be some sort of record. Think about Ian and Ben a lot and how hard they’re working now, as we did for all those years, and wish in a way that they had taken time out to travel, but their time will come as ours has.
(The Guard on the train has joined us to sing and has told us we are just passing through the 17th Parallel from South to North Vietnam.)
So, feeling very lucky tonight to have this opportunity. Back to the singing now – just starting Summertime. (Beryl has just told me to ‘blog’ her ‘tea to go’. She and James (Colonial James – as he has become known, as he’s from Canada) asked for tea to go and got it in a plastic bag with a straw. Hard to describe, but that’s exactly as it was). So, a really wonderful evening, one to remember.
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