Hanoi to Hue

On November 3, we were back in Hanoi and we had another day to catch up on anything in Hanoi that we had missed. The main thing that I figured that I had missed was a chance to see Uncle Ho. It turns out that the people at Lonely Planet are lying sacks of crap and that Ho Chi Minh was not in Russia, but had been in Hanoi all along.

We put together a group and went to see Uncle Ho. I’ve learned that the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh is one of the holiest places in all of Vietnam. For this reason, I will refrain from being disrespectful. I will say this, though. When I’m gone, please make sure that I’m not put on display for anybody and everybody who wants to come by and gawk at me. In his will, Ho Chi Minh requested that his body be cremated and his ashes be spread out over three different areas of Vietnam. I think that was a wise choice.

After visiting the mausoleum, we hopped into a cab and went into the Old Quarter and walked around the markets for a while. I had done this a few days prior, but I didn’t really have much to do, so I went along and did it again. Afterwards, I walked around the city some more – without getting lost for a change – and stopped by a few cafes and restaurants for coffee and to play on the internet while I waited for the group to get together again for yet another overnight train from Hanoi to Hue.

Early in the evening, we all met and walked to the train station, which was pretty close by. We boarded the train with no problems. For the first time in the entire trip, the train cabin in which I stayed had four beds instead of six, so there were none of the storage problems on the Vietnamese train that we had on our trip to Hanoi. About an hour into the train ride, the Chilean member of the group broke out a bottle of Pisco – a Chilean, grape-distilled liquor – and the drinking started. It was all fun and games until some drunken jerk broke the empty bottle of pisco in one of the cabins. Okay, that was me, but we had probably had enough to drink at that point anyway.

Because of heavy rains in the middle and south of Vietnam, the train to Hue was delayed about three hours. The hangover made for a long morning, but it ended soon enough and we transferred to the hotel, which like the hotel in Hanoi, was called Victory Hotel.

After arrival, we went to lunch at a restaurant owned by a deaf mute man, who also took our orders and served us. The food was excellent, including chicken spring rolls that we rolled ourselves, but the highlight probably was watching the owner open five bottles of beer at once with sticks, bolts and a little kung fu. Come to think of it, maybe the highlight was the spring rolls because they were pretty damn good. In any event, after lunch, we went on a little walking tour of Hue. That seems like a pretty good place to start the next post.