06.03 Day 51 Danang to Hue
Wednesday 6th March - Danang - Hue (Day 51)
No pigs blood in breakfast today which consists of large flat noodles, dried garlic, candy floss chicken and sliced sausage. This is topped up with mango in the room, mainly for the kids. I walk to the bakery where we had success with sweet snacks previously and end up with baby macaroons, biscuits (that came with a tub of cream I wasn’t expecting - not overly practical for travel) and a salted iced coffee.
By 8am it’s already 27 degrees. No thought of trying to walk to the train station having checked out of Lahome grabbing a taxi instead. The three TVs in the train station are showing a highlights reel of Danang’s Best Of - bit late now - , a presentation ceremony in a very formal setting and a old old episode of Mr Bean with Rowan Atkinson.
Sadly our train arrives promptly at 10am and we’re ushered on to the platform, which is barely discernible from the tracks (bar the actual tracks). We’d booked online two days ago and had the choice of every seat in the carriage. In the 10 minutes it takes to get us all on, there are now only 3 seats available. We’d bagged the seats in the middle of the carriage, the table between us marking the halfway point and meaning half the carriage is always facing forwards and half backwards.
The three hour ride ahead from Danang to Hue hugs the coastline with some spectacular scenery. I’d guessed online which direction the train would be going to have our seats on the eastern side as we head North, but the toss of a coin fell against me so we had to crane our necks past those that were sleeping. I’m tempted to wake them to say - if you want to sleep, how about we switch sides (though to be fair all the windows are a bit murky anyway).
Of course the kids don’t care, they're more interested in playing card games of Phase 10 or Uno or where the next snack is coming from or whether they can watch the ipad. At the end of the carriage I discover an open window for clear views of the scenery, and am joined by the smokers searching for their ‘fresh air’, one of them even asking for me to take photos on his phone while he smokes. It is impressive scenery on this, for the most part, one track line, which does result in several waits for an oncoming train to pass us by.
Despite the pauses we arrived in Hue about on time. Heading North we expected it to be cooler and so planned to walk the 30 minutes to our new homestay. In fact it’s 35 degrees, so bypassing the touting taxi drivers, we Grab taxi to our new place called simply ‘Chic Studio Homestay’ up a side alley off a busy main road. Our studio room on the second floor is fine, though somehow also underwhelming (even at $40 a night you’re allowed to be underwhelmed in this part of the world).
Sightseeing and exploring are off the cards in this heat so we seek refuge in a small mall a few minutes up the road, hoping for aircon and a drink. What we discover, next to White Rabbit Arcade Games is a soft play area which causes the kids' eyes to light up. With nothing planned, nor wanting to go back outside we part with 120k vnd ($8), the kids are both happy as larry in ball pits, trampoline floors and walls, foam covered climbing frames. They’re almost the only people in there and I guarantee they’re going to be asking to return here whilst we want to wander around imperial palaces or overgrown tombs of deceased monarchs in this former capital city.
After nearly 2 hours of sweat-inducing fun (despite the aircon) and knowing them better than they know themselves we coax them out for dinner at Cozy Restaurant just 100 metres away. Sure enough Seb is impatient in waiting for his food. After dinner we pop back in the mall to stock up on supplies - yoghurt, apples and watermelon for all, and excitingly for Kate, 25 black tea bags. And with that excitement over it’s time to hit the hay, and wait for an apparent 10 degree drop in temperature overnight.