Day 9 - Train to Hue

Today was our last day in the Victoria hotel in Hoi An. We had booked a train journey to take us from Hoi An all the way to the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hue. To get to the train station we had to navigate the chaotic roads of Vietnam, thousands of mopeds driving around in seemingly no order at all, completely ignoring road signs and lights.

Walking on the tracks to our train.

To get onto the train we had to walk along the tracks, while vendors continuously yelled for us to buy their wares. As we took our seats at the back of the carriage we realised there was some luggage stuffed behind our seats, on closer inspection we realised it was moving, they were was large boxes of bugs. Our train journey through the picturesque rice fields and mountains of Vietnam took just under 3 hours. The only downside to the journey was that the carriage stunk terribly.

Box of bugs directly behind our seats.

After our long train journey through rural Vietnam, seeing farmers plodding waist deep in mud pulling cows behind them, as well as all the paddy fields and small villages, we finally arrived Hue. After we had relaxed and unpacked in our new hotel it was time for us to find somewhere to eat for dinner. We had been told that most people in Hue eat in shopping centre food courts, so we decided that we would too. The food courts here in Vietnam are so much better than the British ones of Mcdonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut. The only western food place was KFC, all the others were Vietnamese fast food outlets and other South East Asian outlets, I went for a Thai green curry, and a Vietnamese stir fry (I was hungry, don't judge me). The food was a lot better than I expected, and I even got persuaded into eating a pig's ear (yum) which was different. The weird thing was that it was obvious that not many Westerners eat out at the food court, as we were the only Western family there, and as a result were stared at for the vast majority of the time.

Once we had finished and looked around the shopping centre we headed back to the hotel to watch some tv, in this case the Hobbit film and then went to bed.

COW!