Heading South

After about a week in and around Hanoi it's time to head south. We bought tickets on the overnight train to Hue. We had the whole day to kill with lots of errands - post office (where I mailed a small package that will take 2 months to arrive), bank, book exchange, grocery store (to not repeat the 14 hours with no food debacle), etc.

One nagging item on the to-do list was to exchange what was left of our Laos kip - about $20 worth. The problem is no one will take or exchange kip and if it can't happen in a big city like Hanoi it's not going to happen. After going to a small bank and being told, "no kip exchange" we were approached by a woman on the sidewalk who was willing to exchange our kip. She was offering a horrible exchange rate - essentially 35% commission. Even I who hate all this haggling stuff knew this sucked and said no thanks. After some discussion we finally agreed on a price and that's when it started to get funny. She took our money and then she and her strange little helper started handing us money, taking it away, handing us more, taking that away, and so forth. It was like one of those games on the streets of New York where you never quite know where your money is and what you are owed. It's a weird scene because you're both doing something you're not supposed to do, and you probably have no proof of what has transpired, and no one wants to call attention to the situation. In the end we got what we agreed upon but you could totally see how easy it was to get ripped off.

I was very excited to get on the night train - one to get out of the big, bad city, and two to get to sleep on the train, especially after the recent bad bus rides. Our cabin had 4 bunks - 2 top and 2 bottom. You get a little bag with sheets and a blanket and a thermos of hot water. That's it, and that's considered luxury.

Our cabin mates were Dave and Carol. Dave was an interesting sort. He is American but has been living in Thailand for the past year. Turns out he lives in this resort town about 3 hours east of Bangkok which is known pretty much only for sex tourism. He was pretty cagey when I asked him what brought him to Thailand, etc..and now it all makes sense. He also had a bumper sticker on his backpack that read, "Nana Hotel," which is the big sex tourism place to stay in Bangkok. It's the equivalent of having a "Bunny Ranch" or "Playboy Mansion" sticker on your car -classy. Anyway, he was a weird dude but since he didn't snore or steal anything he was ok.

We arrived in Hue this am pretty tired as sleeping on the sleeper train isn't all that easy. We wandered around a bit on our own trying to find a place to stay. This is an experience within itself. While you walk the streets you're stalked, yes stalked, by locals on minibikes, taxis, on foot, trying to get you to come to their guest house. When you go in another guesthouse they'll wait for you to come out and follow you to the next, talking to you the whole time. On the receiving end the emotions transpire as follows: feeling overwhelmed, to maybe being interested in the information, to being amused, to being annoyed. In the end we found this cute place mostly on our own.




The plan is to go to the DMZ tomorrow but many reports claim that the trip is long and boring and very touristy....so we may change our plans.

Another discovery - Leonardo Dicaprio and Colin Farrell both appear to get their hair cut in Hue, as evidenced by this awning.