Day 5, Halong Bay to Hue (the longest day)

It’s good to be writing this from a mostly comfy hotel bed (I probably haven’t mentioned they like hard beds over here) in airconditioned comfort, as this day was a killer.

Woke up in time for breakfast on the boat in Halong Bay, followed by a short demonstration on vegetable carving. The chef does an impressive trick making a fish net out of a carrot. We then toodled back to the shore, hopped off the boat into the waiting bus for the long drive back to Hanoi. There’s only dual carrigeway for part of the route, the rest is just a lane each way and all the trucks, cars, buses and mopeds you could want (plus bicycles and other miscellaneous vehicles of dubious quality).

Four hours or so all up, plus a stop off at a humanitarian centre for lunch and to buy stuff. There appears to be a fairly significant part of the population dealing with the fun left by Agent Orange, with ongoing congenital issues. In some places, these disabled are given work at humanitarian centres, where they hopefully are able to enjoy life. At this centre they do a lot of embroidery, painting and stone art. Some really impressive work, we’re talking about large pictures embroidered, impressive colour and shading and the like. We didn’t really meet any of the artists, so it wasn’t a freak show, and I’m not sure what the whole deal is if they live at the centre or just work there. Some impressive pieces, I picked up a stone egg (L thinks the old men carved from the egg look like zombies, but I think it’s kind of cool).

Back in Hanoi, we had a couple of hours to shop for the overnight ride on the Reunification Express to Hue. Would have liked to crash out but we didn’t have a bed, so wandered around looking for chips and chocolate. Also bought a bottle of the aforementioned rice vodka for 65000 VND, so just over $3 AUD and worth barely a cent more. We also killed a bit of time at a local bia hall, where they serve bia hoa or fresh beer, brewed the same day, and cost 8000 VND for a decent sized glass. Not bad either, fresh is a good description, a little rough around the edges, but with good flavour and easy to drink (possibly only 3% alc too). Also had some french fries, and dipped these in the lime-salt-pepper combination, and tasted good.

Then onto the train. Apparently at 4 bunk beds to a cabin, we were in the best class. Hanoi station is not the greatest, the toilet there lacked some plumbing and hygiene. The carriage had a choice of ablution options: at one end a squat hole, at the other a western dunny that wasn’t much cleaner. There may have been a second western loo behind the door that appeared to be locked for the entire journey.

Hanoi to Hue is about 13 hours by train. Gong overnight, the hours are incredibly long, as the train is full of rattles and other clanking and banging, quite hard to sleep (didn’t pack earplugs). Spent a few hours hosting the whole tour group in our cabin, drinking, singing badly, and some charades.

A very, very, very long day and night.