Pagodas and The Perfume River

We left Hanoi early on Thursday evening and took a taxi to the Mango Hotel where our hotel told us we could get our train tickets.  Seemed a bit of a bizarre set up but we got our tickets easily and then walked through the hotel restaurant and out onto the station platform!  Our train was waiting so we climbed aboard and settled in for the 13 hour journey.  The cabin was fine – 2 bunk beds, relatively comfortable.  We were sharing with a couple of Belgian guys, Wim and Dany, and spent the evening chatting with them about European politics and swapping travelling stories.

The train pulled in at 8am on Friday morning.  There was a big rush to get off – our carriage was full of Westerners so pretty much everyone was headed for Hue, a regular stop on the tourist trail.  We got a taxi to our hotel and luckily managed to check into our room, dump our bags and freshen up before heading out into the sunshine.  Click here to read more…