Leaving Hoi An and the Paddy march to Hanoi

01 July Not sure if that title is a reference to my origins or to the rice fields, but it felt like a bit of both. I left Hoi An today and after reading a reccommendation in the Lonely Planet Guidebook I decided I would take the train journey along the coast from nearby Danang (30 kms away) to Hue (my next desination). The girls on reception offered to organise a bus pick to Hue for me for $1 and couldn't understand that I wanted to go on a more inconvienient, longer and more costly option. The travel scene here is so easy with pick ups at your hotel and drop off where ever for next to nothing. Its too easy and largely uneventful and I do have a blog to keep. Taking the locals route I hopped on the back of a motorbike and off i went down to the local bus station. I got there and a woman selling stall food gave me all my info whilst relieving me of 50 cent for a bottle of water. The bus pulled up and resembled one of those yellow American school buses from the 1950's. The windows were the slide across type and everyone was hanging out the window. I was like the new circus attraction and the whole journey the other passengers were just looking at me. I often think that they must be well used to foreigners but then the bus travelling Vietnamese have come to town from rural areas and not used to my kind. An hour later I arrived in Danang. Danang is a large business town and doesnt really cater for tourists all that much, so english speakers are thin on the ground. The bus conducter told me to get off and I found myself at some big central boulevard place. With the help of a map and an nice young lady with an little english I agreed with a motorcycle taxi driver to take me to the train station. I dont think he understood and didnt have any reading glasses so he took me to whatI thought was the train station but turned out to be the airport, the gobshite. He was paid and gone but at least I could find out all about the trains and get proper taxis at the airport. Off again in a taxi to the train station. Got to the station and got my ticket, the ticket seller asked if I wanted a sleeper carraige and I said no. She gave me a sleeper ticket, too much hassle to change it so i took it. An hour later i was on board and my sleeper car was a cabin of 6 beds with a Vietnamese family of 5 already in there. My bed was the bottom bunk and 2 of them were sitting on it eating their dinner, great. They didnt have any English except the grandfather who fought in the war and kept saying to me whilst maintaining direct eye contact ' Viet Nam No.1 , Viet Nam No.1' I smiled, nodded and said 'yes'. My expected view of the coast line was obscurred by four heads of black hair and one silver so that was a balls. I hopped up to the top bunk (3 levels up) and slept for the rest of the journey. Arrived in Hue and taxied to the hotel. I checked in and went out for food to a restaurant arond the corner. The waiter was a lad named Tuu and he manged to convince me to take a tour with him on the back of his bike the following day.
02 July Met Tuu at 8.30am and off we went. He brought me down all kinds of back roads and alleys and saw lots of off the beaten track stuff. Saw the usual tombs, palaces, buddas etc. The town centre of Hue is a walled in town and i decided to do that myself. Late that afternoon I went in and it was too big to get a good look. Its perimiter is 10km and contains a walled in palace inside that again.
03 July I took a tour to the DMZ (The Demilitarized Zone) which is nearby. I saw tunnels used by the North Vietnames and US army bases and various sights that some Viet Nam movies were made. One of the unexpected events was a Dutch couple on the tour had there wallet snatched by local kids, and after a 2 hour delay we were on our way again. As we got home at the same time as expected I reckon they glossed over a couple of sights including a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a road through the jungle used by the North Vietnamese to move supplies north and south during the American war. we stopped on a bridge for 5 minutes and it was pointed to us and that was it. A visit to a tribal village was a running commentary as we drove past. I queried how we made up 2 hours and got some bullshit excuse about makin good time. It wasnt all bad and was good craic, i met 2 sound English lads and we went for dinner and beers afterwards. Im off to Hanoi (the capital of Viet Nam) tomorrow at 5.15pm by night bus.
04 July Didnt do much today, booked my night bus to Hanoi, looked around and met up with a Spanish couple for dinner. While in the restaurant somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said 'You not going to the Isle of Mann this year?' It was Kathleen Dwyer, whom i met at the IOM last year. She is from my village at home and our mothers were great freinds. Small world. She was travelling with a lad from Inverin ( a village 10km from my home house) and will be meeting up in Hanoi day after tomorrow. Got on the night bus at 5.15pm to Hanoi and about 11pm we stopped off at this roadside place. I got chatting to 2 Brazilian lads and we all decided to order the noodles with vegetables. They must of thought we were complete idiots as when our meal arrived it consisted of a bowl of 2 minute noodles with a couple of green things on it. All around us the locals were tucking in to fine big feeds, while mine was gone in 2 mouthfuls. When it came to paying the bill of 15,000 dong i refused to pay the full amount (backed by the 2 lads) we eventually agreed at 10,000 (40 cent) each and left, but not without a big local drama.
05 July Got to Hanoi at 7.30am this morning. About 10 minutes before the bus dropped us off, this lad hops on and started working his way around the passengers selling his hotel. The flier looked good, it was reccommended by the lonely planet and the price was right. We agreed to take a no obligation look at the place which included transport there. Along the way, he wanted to show us another cheaper option so before we could ddecide either way, we were there. Not liking his modus operandi, I didnt even look at the room but the 2 lads did. They liked it and were happy to stay. I got chatting to a girl from Belfast in the reception and she was happy with it too. I looked at the room and decided to stay. Had a walk around the 'Old Quarter' of Hanoi and stoppped in this place for lunch, I got chatting to this Dutch girl who started giving out about the Irish and their attitude to the Lisbon treaty.... she was nice though. Going out to dinner now with my freind from Belfast and the 2 lads.