Posted:
To be totally honest I was quite pleased that the train we were originally on was cancelled because all though I was feeling much better I still wasn't fully well and getting out of the hotel by 8am would have been horrendous.
We got to Da Nang about an hour before the train was to depart. When we arrived a man immediately came to help carry my bags, I knew that he was doing this to get paid, but the way I felt I really did not care and we didn't know where and how far down the platform we'd need to go when the train arrived. When Tony arrived he fought like mad to not have someone take his bags, but changed his when he'd observed what was happening.
Our train was delayed a little and before our train there were a few overs. We had to wait in the waiting room, no one was allowed to go on to the platform until their train had arrived. Once our train arrived the man took all of our bags down to the carriage and it's a good job because it was the full length of the platform.
Once we had all of our bags on the train we found our seat. The train was in the station for about 10 minutes and just before the train was about to leave someone came and said that we were in her seat. It turns out the the seat numbers on were on the back of the seat and not on the seat in front of us.
The doors of the train were kept shut with a padlock.
The whole reason for getting the train was to witness the scenery as we went passed. The scenery was amazing even through the dirty windows. Every time wae passed a level crossing there was a man stood there with green flag, I tried my best to get a photo of one of these flag bearers but the train was traveling just to quickly.
When we got to our hotel, the driver dropped us off at the end of the road as it was to narrow for cars to drive down. We didn't hang about in the hotel so that we could get out and see the old city.
We got a cab to the city walls to save time, cars are not allowed into the old city so we were dropped off outside. Huế used to be the ancient capital of Vietnam. Due to us getting a later train we could only walk around the outside of the city.
There is a moat surrounding the city, we walked around the moat and saw numerous people fishing the moats with huge nets. As it started to get dark we decided to go get a drink. We found a place by searching maps, Quán Góc Hồ. The search was for craft beer, there was definitely no craft beer and only Bia Viêt lager. The next table was full of locals playing cards very noisily and drinking lots. When we left the place next door we could hear the worst karaoke I've ever heard.
We got a taxi back into the town near our hotel to a real Craft beer bar called The Chàm Craft Beer And Coffee, they had a huge range of Belgian ales but I drank Tê Tê Electric IPA from Ho Chi Min City.
We had a meal at Madam Thu and then had an early night as we had a long day ahead of us.