The road to Hue

So last Friday afternoon Tim (my boss' nephew from Aus) and I took the 13:05 train from Da Nang to Hue. Hue is a 300,000+ city about 1.5 hours by car, or 3 hours by train up the north coast. It is the old capital of Vietnam and as such has some wonderful sights. It sits along the banks of the Perfume River, named as such because it infuses all pictures taken with a pinky, purpley kind of glow. This we found out, may only be true in the sunlight, as we had mostly rain for the 4 days and 3 nights we stayed there.












The train journey was just spectacular. The train winds around the mountainous coast of Vietnam and there were so many little private beaches that I would love to explore. Many look quite inaccessible however. I tried to take some good photos, but unfortunately the train windows were really dirty, so the best are below.












Once we arrived in Hue, we took a cab to our hotel and after some trouble finding our booking we got sorted in our room. Rather than chill, and despite the torrential rain, we decided to go and find a bar and some food. We found a cute little cafe and then, after a few beers, some hot chips and spring rolls, we headed across the road to what would become our favourite bar in Vietnam so far. It was called 'Apocalypse Now' and is the only club we have found with an excellent pooltable (where Tim taught me to be a semi-decent pool player) and played excellent RnB (E.g. Rhianna, Usher etc). We would come back here twice more. The owner lived in Melbourne for a while so spoke excellent English and by the the last night, I could hold my own in a game of pool against the staff and Tim was behind the bar making caprioskas!! It was awesome.


























The first full day we had in Hue, we went down by the River and walked to the Citadel. However we had to do the obligatory tourists pics first.






















Once we got to the Citadel we went to the Imperial Palace. It is a very impressive place and about 10km squared in area. Despite the crowds and the pouring rain Tim and I think we saw pretty much all of it.






















Stay tuned for Part 2 of my trip to Hue. Highlights include: Hue by night, hideously expensive cocktails with a nice view, the one day of sunshine which we spent on our private boat, My new segment "How many motorcycles can you fit in a picture?" and getting ripped off Hue style.