8th August
Best breakfast yet. Fresh
omelette, bacon, sausages, ham, cheese etc etc. I could spend all morning
eating!
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| Breakfast in the Garden |
Spent most of the rest of the morning making use of the WiFi before
checking out. Had lunch at the DMZ, chicken and cashew nuts. As expected from
the name, it has a Vietnam war flavoured theme. Considering the devastation the
war caused to Vietnam, and Hue in particular, I am
surprised it is considered OK to theme a bar and restaurant on it.
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| Lunch in the DMZ. Did have some food as well! |
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| "Dragon" Boats on the Perfume River |
After lunch I
walked across to the citadel, in two minds whether to go in or not, but very pleased I did since parts of it
looked beautiful in the afternoon sunshine. There are a lot of photos of the
imperial court which continued well into the 20th century, almost within living
memory. It was modelled closely on the Chinese Imperial system with the emperor
presiding over a court of mandarins, eunuchs, wives and concubines, all in
strict hierarchies. A society hard for us to imagine living in, but easy to
understand how resentment against it, and the colonial government, led to the rise
of the communist party. Equally hard to
imagine a war being fought here in the 1970s. Definitely within living memory.
It was after 5 when I left and took a trishaw back to the hotel for 60 000
Dong.
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Inside the Citadel
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| Inside the Citadel |
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| Inside the Citadel |
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Inside the Citadel
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| More Long Corridors |
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| Beautifully restored, recreated, in places |
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| Squiggly bits on roof |
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| Squiggly bits on roof |
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| More Roof Decoration |
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| And More Roof Decoration |
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| Much of the Citadel is still a work in Progress |
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| Worker Popped his Clogs? |
Made use of the pool for a
refreshing shower and dip. Ordered a beer but got two as this is Happy Hour!
Had dinner at a restaurant near DMZ, the food was very similar to yesterday's
late lunch and about the about the same price for a very backpacker, touristy
place.
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| Refreshing Dip in the pool |
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| Happy Hour |
Back to the hotel to pick up my bags and get taxi to station where I had a long wait for the train, which was running about an hour late. Eventually they opened the gates to the platform and in it came.
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| At least the outside looks better than Ga Saigon |
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| Beer Ba Ba Ba from the Buffet |
Realise this is the first time I have got on a sleeper other than
at a terminus. I opened the compartment door to find it fully occupied, someone
was sleeping in my bed! Berth 22. Luckily the man in lower berth 21 quickly
moved to share berth 22 with a person I later learnt was his wife. The berths
are not very wide so it would be very cosy for two. Clearly, people regularly
book fewer berths than people either to save money or because the train is
full. It is quite weird getting into a dark compartment filled with an unknown
number of "strange" people. Visions of murder on the Hanoi Express. Didn't
sleep so well tonight.
Woke up before 6 and headed to the buffet car which
soon filled up. After a long wait, I got my bowl of beef Pho but no coffee.
This year, service in the buffet cars is definitely not as good as last year. Back
to the compartment and slept for another hour or so. The man and his wife were
returning from holiday in Danang with their young son who had occupied one of
the upper berths. Don't know what happened to the person occupying the other
upper berth. The train caught up some time and we arrived in Hanoi at midday exactly. Two weeks,
precisely, since I left Clementi
After two weeks of travelling, have you reached the state of mind where this feels as though it is your normal life? Or do you sometimes catch yourself at odd moments wondering how much more time you still have before it's back to work?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely feel I have gone through a transition. Absolutely no thoughts of back to work in the conventional sense.
ReplyDelete