We just got on the train at the French inspired design Hue Rail Station going to Da Nang. We are sitting in a VIP Sleeper berth as Jane booked these tickets through 12Go.Asia (highly recommend the site) and regular seats weren’t available. Not a big deal because the cost for the VIP Sleeper berth is $2.83 as compared to the $1.61 we paid for the seats coming to Hue. If only Amtrak could charge these prices for the Northeast Corridor.
The info book in the berth has a quote from Lonely Planet, stating it is one of “eight world’s most incredible train journeys”. The train goes along the coast of the South China Sea and through Hai Van Pass, which consists of coastal mountains north of Da Nang. It’s really beautiful.
The distance between Da Nang to Hue is only 103km but it took 3 1/2 hours to arrive due to portions where they single track or because the train just crawls. Hue is a lovely city to visit. It is a UNESCO site and was the capital of Vietnam until 1946. Hue is the cleanest city we have visited on this trip.
We arrived here on Friday at 1:30 pm and took a Grab to our hotel, The White Lotus. Yes, we sort of selected the hotel off of its name but the location was the major reason we selected it. By the way, on the way to the ferry, we did pass the Four Seasons in Koh Samui where they are currently filming the next season of The White Lotus.
After checking into the hotel, we walked in the old city, went to the market, and had a late lunch/early dinner at N Cafe. We stopped for a Huda Beer after doing a little more exploring.
On Saturday we did a day tour with 8 people from Budapest, Athens, Seoul & Madrid. Our guide Ruby did an excellent job giving us history of the Vietnamese monarchy. We started the tour by visiting the Hue Imperial City which includes a citadel. The outside walls of the imperial city have bullet holes from the Vietnam War.
After the imperial city, we went to the Dong Ba Market where we bought cashews, dried mangos, and salted coffee. We then took a boat on the Perfume River to the Thien Mu Pagoda.
We had lunch, which included a herbal foot bath after lunch, and then went to King Minh Mang’s Tomb (2nd king) and King Khai Dinh’s tomb (12th king). The 2nd king ruled from 1820-1841 and was our tour guide Ruby’s favorite king as he was a populist. The 12th king ruled between 1916-1925. His tomb was very gaudy.
Last night we went to Zucca Restaurant for Italian food as it was time for western food. The streets were closed to cars and scooters last night and we strolled the area busy with locals enjoying Saturday night and the sounds of smooth jazz. We stopped for a beer and noticed that most of the tables bought beer by the case, yes, by the case.
We are scheduled to arrive back in Da Nang in a few hours and then have a 45 drive to Hoi An where we will be for the next four nights.
Full disclosure: wrote this on the train but didn’t send it until we got to Hoi An due to weak wifi on the train.
Traveling Walters 