Text: Peter Johansson
Editing: Christer Lundstedt
Photos: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
06.17 Light is coming in through the window. Sound is coming out of the loudspeaker. People are walking in the corridor. It is morning and the sleep has been so and so. We are rolling on with the train towards Hué. It will be our second stop here in Vietnam.
07.46 I’ve managed to get down from my bed. It wasn’t easy but I got down. Trees, houses, powerlines and in the distant mountains are passing by. I wonder how far it is left.
Looking through our train window. What times it? Where are we?
08.37 It wasn't that far. We got there and got off at the railway station in Hué. Here we received some help finding timetables and ticket counters from a man. We bought ourselves a ticket from one of the counters, not for today but for tomorrow. An, to say the least, annoying man kept bothering us in the queue. He tried to cut in but we put an end to that. After that he stood behind us and kept repeating everything we said. We are now in a taxi towards our next place to stay, the one Christer booked on Thursday. There aren´t as many vehicles here compared to Hanoi. Hué is the old imperial capital of Vietnam (up to 1945) and has a whole lot of things to see and offer. Due to lack of seats on the train and therefore one day’s delay we have to make it all in one day.
08.54 The taxi took us to Phu An Hotel here in Hué. Among other things we´ve unpacked the snacks we brought with us. It was a bit too crowded to have anything but candy on the night train.
Phu An Hotel
A "cyclo" crossing a street in Hué.
10.35 We’ve eaten what we brought with us and flushed away the travel dust off our bodies. It remains to see what we will do next. Shall we remain here and gain some strength or go out and gain new impressions?
12.13 We’ve bought postcards and are now seated by a table at Paradise Garden. Next to us is the Song Huong (Perfume River). I’ve ordered a local speciality. This is really going out to eat. We are sitting outdoors. It is more peaceful here in Hué but there are still some of the ”Hello”-people with different offers here as well. It is sad that they can’t take no for an answer. They keep on talking.
Christer near "Perfume River" in Hué.
A heavy load on this boat on the Song Huong (Perfume River).
The Vietnam flag on the highest flagpole in the country (37 meters).
12.38 We are sitting under the leafy trees and hear birds and crickets. Christer is eating and seem pleased. I wish I could do the same but I haven’t got any food. Maybe I should have ordered a noodle dish instead of ribs? Behind me there is a guy from Australia and he is telling fascinating things to a Vietnamese lady friend of his.
12.58 The ribs came, tasty ribs. The staff seems to be preparing for some big event. The only one who has approached our table is an elderly lady who wanted to sell us something. We don´t know what. She didn´t speak English.
13.14 We’ve crossed the Phu Xuan-bridge and reached the other side of Song Huong. We are taking a short break in a small park. Fully loaded boats are passing us out on the river and I am sweating. It is time to use a wet wipe.
14.24 With a soft drink in our hands and a straw in the beverage, we´ve sat down on a bench inside of the Imperial Enclosure. It is an area from the imperial days. Hué was the capital from 1802 to 1945 when the communists came to power. It is plenty of buildings as well as degrees here.
Christer in front of one of the moats around the Imperial City in Hué.
Ngo Mon, the big gate to the purple forbidden city in Hué.
15.13 I am glad that we chose to stop for fluids before we started to walk around here. I guess I already have been sweating out the same amount that I filled up with then. I am glad that we went here. Everything is so amazing. There are wonderful buildings with beautiful colours and lots of gracefulness. For some reason this part of Vietnam seem to be spared from the rainy season which is going on in the rest of Southeast Asia. The grass is yellow and the sky is blue hence the heat.
16.05 We kept on walking around in the Imperial city. A lot of beautiful things to see but the heat eventually got the better of us. We got back home as quickly as the traffic and heat allowed us to. This time we passed over the Trang Tien-bridge. We’ve bought some beverages before we went up to the room. We bought it from a little old lady who must have been selling things during the Vietnam War. It is actually called the American War here in Vietnam. We’ve promised to bring back the empty bottles later.
Typical vietnamese traffic on the street Tran Hung Dao.
19.24 The last couple of hours have just been lazy. It is time to get busy again. We are in need of a dinner, some food for the journey tomorrow and to arrange with a room for tomorrow. There are several alternatives in the guide books. But do these places exist in real life?
19.47 We’ve found out that there is internet in our hotel and that the food can be bought tomorrow. One thing that can’t be done tomorrow or at the hotel is to have dinner. That´s why we’ve sat down at the restaurant Zdach Lau. At least we think so. It is hard to tell what the name really is.
20.32 Vietnamese coffee is an excellent thing to finish a tasty wok meal. Now we will take care of some other things.
21.58 We decided to go out on the internet. We answered e-mails, looked at http://www.resedagboken.cc, e-mailed about a possible stop in Bahrain and arranged with a room the upcoming nights. Christer also managed to have an interesting conversation with a local girl before she thought that a man on a motorcycle was more important to talk to. She wanted to know if this was his first visit to Vietnam and what he thought about Hué. It is time for a shower before something else is done.
23.43 We’ve had an evening beer each. This hotel is great but we will travel on tomorrow towards new places and experiences.
07.46 It seems to be another bright sunny day. Outside of the room are all the classic things; the vehicles, the people, the honking and almost total lack of animals.
08.23 The smoke is rising in thin stripes from the incense sticks by the small altar. Three big fishes are swimming around in a small aquarium each. The guests are coming and going. We remain seated waiting for our breakfast here at Phu An Hotel.
08.55 My coffee arrived in a glass cup. It was just a couple of centimetres of coffee in it. With the cup came a glass with hot water. All I had to do was to mix the two fluids to get me my morning coffee. It is time to head out and mail the postcards and return the bottles to the old lady.
Nice wiew from our balcony.
09.33 We’ve left the bottles to the old man instead. The lady wasn’t there. We’ve posted the postcards and checked our e-mails. No answers from the next home, the booking agency or anyone that can inform us whether we can enter Bahrain or not. It would be nice to know if our Israeli stamps are a problem for us or not. We will buy our eatables for the trip at the railway station.
10.08 We’ve paid for the room and caught a taxi to the station. We went with the taxi company Mai Linh which after our short stay here in Vietnam seems to be the most reliable one. We are having a break on some yellow plastic chairs. We will soon relocate to a different room. We were told this by the man who assisted us yesterday. He seems to walk around here helping whoever needs it.
10.16 The new room is cooler and the chairs are red. Within 30 minutes the train will leave for Diêu Trỉ. There sure are few selling bread here. In fact they are zero. Maybe there are some on the platform?
Christer buying water at the railway station in Hué. Can you see him?
11.03 A trolley with bread appeared in the waiting room and we bought two pieces of bread each. I wonder how the taste will be? We’ve also bought some water. We are nevertheless back in a compartment again. Christer in bed 18 and me in the bed above, number 20. I am going to take out the bread and water and place it on the shelf. We´ve got a bed each and there are a total of six beds here.
13.06 We are puffing, rocking and going along the coast. I’ve had some of the bread. It was delicious. I am going on an expedition. What else does the train have to offer?
13.25 Wagon after wagon was what it offered, nothing but wagons with compartments. Now we’ve stopped to relocate passengers. Some have finished their trip and some have just begun. We are in Da Nang. A man just looked in and patted on bed 19. It is the only uninhabited bed. A little child is sitting in another compartment making a beeping sound.
A very slow traintrip through the hills near Da Nang.
Peter discovering our train.
14.59 I look to one side and what do I see?; sand, villages, rice fields and mountains. I look to the other side and I see; a road, houses and trees. Three hours remain of the trip. It is calm and silent in the corridor and our only remaining compartment neighbour is sleeping.
16.50 The neighbour is curious about where I am from. I am sad to say that his English is poor, even poorer than mine. He also seems to never have heard about Sweden before. The sun is shining in through the windows in the corridor. The neighbour has asked me to get him a shoe from under his bed. There are 4-5 pairs of shoes there. Are they all his? Does some of them belong to the other guy he is talking to?
Beautiful countryside in central Vietnam.
18.01 The sun is setting and the day has come to an end. Come to an end have also our train ride. I think we will get off before the sun has set. My stomach is making sounds and we will soon get off.
18.23 We are at the station in the small town Diêu Trỉ. Now we will get a taxi to our next place of visit, the nearby city Quy Nhon. There is some kind of festival here in the city. It is called Tay Son Binh Dinh. There is a little chance that the people visiting the festival have filled our hotel. We don’t want to go through what we did in Szombathely (7/7 2001).
19.08 This time it is room 407. This time it is Saigon Quynhon Hotel. (http://www.saigonquynhonhotel.com.vn) This time it is as I mentioned Quy Nhon. It is the first time in all these years that we’ve checked in at a place that begins with a Q. We shared the lift with some Asians in bathrobes. This is most likely the best hotel we´ve ever stayed at on our trips. Well maybe not better than SAS Radisson in Riga but we didn’t pay for that (4/3 2007). The price for this luxury room is around US$17 each. The price is low due to the fact it is low season and that we got a bargain when we booked it on the internet.
Our nice room at Saigon Quynhon Hotel.
20.45 We’ve had a shower and have headed out for dinner. We took aim for Kiwi Café which according to our guidebook serves Western food and is supposed to be a hub for all the backpackers in this city. I don’t know if we got the wrong address or if the little bird has flown, sorry run away. We are instead seated in the hotel restaurant and just got our beers. We are having Green Lowen, a local beer.
21.51 The food was great; the enthusiasm from the staff was poor and not a single guest besides the two of us. Before dinner we bought some juice in a small shop nearby. The man running it informed us that Christer had paid for both bottles and I didn´t have to pay extra. That is honesty.
22.16 We could have been looking for Kiwi Café until Steve had become a grandmother. New facts tell us that it has been taken away from its spot to make room for new buildings.
07.50 It has been a while since I slept as well as I did this night. Our view, panorama or what ever the word is, is fantastic! We can see palm trees, a beach, the ocean and a mountain range.
09.00 There is plenty to choose from at the buffet table here in the hotel´s dining room. It is everything from rice- and noodle dishes and fresh vegetables to beverages and soft ginger bread with a touch of cinnamon.
Saigon Quynhon Hotel.
09.39 Another day plan-note has been written. Soon we will head out into the sunlight. The guidebooks tell us that there are few here who will come with different offers to us here. We will soon find out if it is true or not. This part of Vietnam has few tourists but we think that Quy Nhon has a good chance to become a tourist place in the near future. It has all what is needed; beaches, interesting places to visit, good climate and low prices.
11.21 So far there have been very few shouting ”Hello” to us. We’ve also seen three dogs. A new place to stay has been booked on the internet and we’ve also been welcomed to Bahrain through an e-mail-reply on our request. There are no problems with the stamps the Israeli gave us in 2005. We hope this will be OK when we are there in the real life.
The Assumption Catholic Cathedral in Quy Nhon.
Peter taking notes on a sidewalk in Quy Nhon.
Christer standing on the beach in Quy Nhon.
11.35 We’ve walked around the city, seen the Catholic church and took pictures of Quang Trung, it is an equestrian statue. We saw an elderly gentleman outside a tombstone store. The man might have been friends with Ho Chi Minh himself. We wonder if he maybe was looking for a stone for himself.
11.59 We’ve seen a large Buddha statue and had a conversation in German with a biking Vietnamese man. He seemed to have a friend living in Sweden. He himself had lived for about 30 years in Germany. My toes are now digging deep into the warm sand on the beach. This might have been a perfect beach if it hadn’t been for the fact that neither the sand nor water is clean enough as of now. People are told not to swim here but there are some other good beaches around the city.
12.28 As our bodies have cooled down here in the room it is now time to give them some nutrition, where we will get that nutrition from remains to find out.
12.59 We are currently sitting on the roof of the hotel. We are at Seaview Café. We’ve ordered cheese- and ham sandwiches with some juice to drink. We sure could have had been sitting in worse places. The view is spectacular in every direction.
Peter having lunch at Seaview Café.
13.37 I am sitting in a resting chair waiting for my turn to take a shower. We’ve gone to the hotel swimming pool. There are two ladies of what we think Dutch origin in the jacuzzi. At least they are speaking dutch. It is time for yet another pool visit in yet another country. The sad thing is the fact that the pool is in the shade due to the high hotel building.
15.30 Relaxed and ready to see more of our home city. We are going to look for postcards, dinner places and other stuff.
Looking for a sunny spot in the swimming pool.
We took a long walk along the beach.
16.24 We’ve walked back and forth along the beach. We saw where the Kiwi place had moved during that walk. We’ve also in vain searched for an American tank which according to the guidebook should stand half submerged in the waters along the beach. We didn’t find any tank. Now it is time for something to drink.
17.03 We are outside a huge mall. We didn’t take the straight way here to say the least. We’ve walked up and down the boulevard before we found our way here. There are restaurants and different kinds of stores here. We need to take care of our valuables before we get inside one of the stores. It seems that we have to leave your bags to a guard before we can enter the store we’ve planned to enter.
On our way to do some shopping... but where are we?
17.34 The guard didn’t want to have our bags! See what happens as one comes prepared! We’ve bought beverages for tonight, tomorrow and in my case for the future. I’ve bought a bottle of Vietnamese whisky. Besides this Christer has bought two shirts for around US$10 and I have bought a sleeveless t-shirt for around US$3. Now it is time to carry on this long day. There is a festival going on outside. There are people everywhere and some are preparing some musical performance.
20.15 After some resting on the room it´s time to put on some clean clothes. We are about to head down for yet another dinner in the hotel restaurant. This city has a lot to offer regarding most things but not as it comes to restaurants. There isn't much to choose from except fish and seafood. We passed the local museum on our way back to the hotel a bit earlier this evening and we saw an American tank there. It might have been the one we didn’t find near the beach earlier today. Maybe it has been moved to the museum?
20.40 Things are for sure happening here. Just as I am about to place my order one in the staff starts to rearrange things on the table. He puts the beverage menu on Christer´s cloth bag and wonders if I would like to order. I say yes and Christer hands the food menu to me. Suddenly the guy just leaves. He gets back soon. I place my order and ask for lime juice and he replies that they just serve food. Everything is solved and we just got our food. To make things worse there are some smoking tourists from Denmark at the table behind me.
Peter is looking for money.
06.37 The number of remaining stops is getting fewer. The day we go home is getting closer. It is just two weeks left.
07.52 A solid breakfast is Alfa and Omega if one is supposed to make a trip. It just gets better if you also are able to take some bread with you to have on the trip. All the tickets for the olympics are sold according to CNN. You have to pay US$645 if you want to see the opening ceremony.
08.17 It is soon time to say good bye to Quy Nhon. This place will boom with tourists if they just clean the beach and the water outside of it. It is time to check that nothing has been forgotten.
Quy Nhon
08.42 Nothing was left behind, at least I think so. We got our passports back as we checked out. We were also told that they would pay for our stay. I wonder who they are. They are most likely the internet travel agency where Christer booked the room. We took a taxi to the bus station here in Quy Nhon and as we got there people were on to us as small birds on bread. One rushed, waving across the road before the taxi had stopped. I couldn’t make head or tales of what some of them were trying to say. We are now inside a minibus and a smiling lady is trying to convince me to buy some snacks from her. There is a pattering sound from somewhere outside.
09.05 We’ve left the bus station and stopped on the side of the road just outside of the station. Our bus host stepped out and made two forward summersaults in front of the minibus. He has since found/recruited/shown yet another passenger to the bus. We are still on the same spot and the passengers are talking to each other. Upfront are three young ladies. One of them seems to shake a jar with pills because we can hear a rattling sound. The strange sound goes on outside, damn it, I have to sneeze.
09.30 We are now 21 passengers, 21 that’s unbeatable right? The driver just stopped to let in an old man with a grey beard and a green helmet. 22 passengers, 1 driver and 1 bus host are leaving Quy Nhon in a minibus. Some sit on plastic chairs.
09.59 We’ve stopped and some have stepped out. Are they getting off or just stretching their legs? The man next to me is leaning his head to the seats in front of him. Another person is poking my neck. The doors are closed and we are now 23 passengers on 4 seats plus the trunk. Why do some of them have mouth pieces? The air isn't that bad.
11.08 We are fewer. The problem here isn't the hole in the roads; it is the road in the holes, large eroded/wore down areas with just some asphalt in between. We just saw a guy with blood in his face and on his arms on a bridge just outside of Tuy Hoa. He must have fallen off his motorcycle. It is time for another stop. I think that the fact that some are smoking is the reason why other wear mouth pieces. What makes people smoke in a crowded bus?
Christer is sweating and wondering how long we have to stay in Dai Lanh.
11.58 We´ve got around 80 kilometres left to Nha Trang. We just made a stop in Dai Lãnh to stretch the legs, fill the bellies and God knows what. I wonder how long we will remain here. There are plenty of fishing boats out in the ocean and the whole village smells of fish.
12.18 The break is over. I was sweating although we remained in the shadow. How can some wear long sleeves, long pants and mouth pieces in this heat? We were the main attraction for two small boys during the break; they hid themselves for us, begged for money and thought it was hilarious that we had turned up in their life.
13.07 It is time for a new stop. The bus is being refilled with petrol. Some of the passengers are smoking just by the petrol pumps. What are they thinking? Are they thinking at all? The man filling the bus looked inside and said ”Hello” before he left.
13.54 We left the bus as it reached Nha Trang and entered a taxi. We’ve just shown a note with the name of the hotel to the driver. We already owe him 13 500 dong according to the meter.
14.13 After asking once and then stopping again at Good Hotel to ask more, the taxi driver has taken us to our pre-booked Golden Hotel. Here we´re staying in room 402. The city is filled with flags and all of them are red. Some are the Vietnamese flag and the others have the hammer and the sickle on them. Nha Trang is both a place with a beach and a major city. We are back in more tourists-like areas again.
What´s happening outside of our room?
The boulevard Tran Phu in Nha Trang, decorated with flags.
15.44 It is time to get us some food at the restaurant Chopsticks. We are across the street from or hotel. On the hotelside of the road is Jungle Travel. They seem to sell train tickets. Might they have tickets for Ho Chi Minh City where we are going? Right now a Dalmatian came running behind me.
16.39 We’ve bought our tickets from a happy girl at Jungle Travel. We can pick them up in a couple of hours. Next we will head out on the internet.
18.09 We’ve found out the latest news through the internet. After that we´ve searched for a place to eat, a post office with postcards and stamps and a store with beverages. We kept on to Jungle Travel and collected our tickets to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We bowed and thanked the young lady. We also gave her a card with information about our website. Now we’ve returned to the room to regain power.
Our street, Hung Vuong Street. Golden Hotel is the building with a light colour in the centre of the picture.
20.11 Fridge-cold soda is a great alternative if you want to fill up your fluid deposits. Now we just have to find some solid food as well.
20.54 After choosing between several tourist inspired restaurants we´re at Gia Restaurant which offers genuine Vietnamese dishes. Between the two of us is a round table which is 1.5 metres across. I’ve ordered caramelized pork; yes I just can’t skip pork. It is boring, but ever so tasty. Christer keeps on trying new interesting things, breaking new grounds with lemongrass chicken. One of the waiters just asked where we come from. It is nice here, looks stylish.
21.59 It was delicious and not expensive at all although it looked so stylish. We’ve bought some beer before returning to our room. I also bought some crisps. There was a young Swedish couple in the store. They acted like athey were home in Sweden at a supermarket. Shall we take this or that? What does that cost? etc.
23.39 We were sitting on the balcony having a beer each when our phone rang. It was Shu Ming. She wanted to know when we would get to Saigon. We told her what we know right now.
You can see 40 photos from July 26 in this photoalbum.
You can see 10 photos from July 27 in this photoalbum.
You can see 43 photos from July 28 in this photoalbum.
You can see 9 photos from July 29 in this photoalbum.