The Perfume River

I must apologise for me last entry - it was crap. My heart just wasn't in it, and you deserve better.
OK so we left Saigon, er, several days ago... We were due to catch the overnight bus at 8.20 pm, however we arrived only to find the train delayed until 11pm. [Sorry, this huge green butterfly just floated into the cafe and sat on the wall for a minute - awesome!] Cards are very handy things when trying to pass several hours.
The trains here are quite good - there's only one main line that runs from north to south, so delays are inevitable, but they always seem to arrive as scheduled. I think we were fairly spoilt in getting the 4 berth rooms, rather than 6, or even seated compartments [she says with nose in the air] but I think the toilets were shared by everyone - well, that's how they smelt, anyway. Normally I can sleep OK on these things, but the air-con kept flicking on and off like the flouro light outside so I spent the night trying to maintain a regular body temperature...

The train was due to arrive about 5.30am (its becoming a common theme for me) so I guess I was up at about 5.15, and taking in the view of rural Vietnam. It was amazing - the sky was a hazy salmon pink with grey mountains behind a strip of rice paddies, some of which were burning, ready for the next crop. The locals were out already - understandably, most people are pretty useless in the midday sun - oh wait, that might just be me. There were bullocks pulling carts and it was just generally picturesque.

We pulled into Nha Trang and headed for the hotel, keen for showers. Nha Trang is a beach town, as I mentioned, so we chartered a boat and went out for a day of snorkling (which was pretty crap - no coral at all) and just generally sunning outselves on the boat, or splashing around in the water. Lunch was a seafood buffet, and man was it good. Grilled squid, fried prawnd, grilled marlin with mango salsa, fried noodles, rice, stir fried greens - OK I'll stop. Yes, at times I do feel like I'm on an eating tour of SE Asia, but its all sooo good! Except whatever made me sick the other day!

From Nha Trang we caught another overnight train to Da Nang (and I slept really well this time), then a quick bus trip back to our base in Hoi An. Hoi An is a small place not that far from the coast. Its retained alot of the old town, and this is a shoppers paradise. Every second shop is a tailors shop, and the shops in between are usually shoe makers. Hoi An is well known for its food also, but unfortunately I had lost the first day of this gastranomical location getting better acquainted with our hotel's bathroom. God love those generic stomach bug anti-biotics. The people there are really friendly - they can make quite a nice conversation out of "You come and see my shop - just look OK". Its funny, if you walked through the markets blindfolded (but not recommended) you would be able to tell what the vendors were selling; all the souvenir sellers spoke to you, but the fresh produce people just didn't waste the energy, unless of course you gave them a big grin, and quizzical look at what they were selling. I often try to ask what things are (as sometimes you honestly just don't know), but unfortunately the only reply is often just a nod and a grin, occasionally a price per kilo...
From Hoi An to Hue is only about 4 hours, so we managed a private bus for a scenic tour over the mountain pass that virtually seperates north from south. They say that they even affect the temperature, so I guess I'm just insensitive to that subtle climatic change...The drive was beautiful, if not slightly hair raising, as we wound our way up and down hair-pin bends at a very slow pace, while still managing to pass slightly slower vehicles. There were hollows of rice fields either side of the road, with the mountains fading into the backgound behind; the scenes were great - locals standing on their buffalo, workers silhouettes wandereing across the railway bridge, and dropping out their fishing nets behind their boat on the little river inlets. As our guides often say, many kodak moments.

Hue is a reasonably big place, but I like it. Again, the people are friendly (sometimes too friendly, you can't hire every moto driver in the city!) and keen to get your money, er I mean help you out. Yesterday we took a full day tour by motorbike that lead us out into the countryside, through little villages, rice fields, bamboo groves, along rivers and past kids screaming "Hello!" and holding out thier hands for a Hi 5 out wide! We say ducks being herded down a river, locals making cone hats and incense, and then stopped for lunch at a nunnery which was lovely and quiet. You almost feel like a local on the back of one of these bikes, you can go anywhere, and I think we kinda did. We finished with a boat trip back along the Perfumed River that runs through Hue, so named as the rains would un down through the mountains, picking up the scent of the orchids on their way - I don't know that it smells like Orchids now, but at least it doesn't smell of anything else, which can't be said for too many of the rivers throughout the region.