We said our good-byes to new friends and exchanged emails with Mo and Jaz. Dirk and his drinking buddy from Denmark said good-bye and off we went to the train station.

We had decided on taking a daytime (vs overnight) train for the 11 hour trip to the city of Hue thinking we could enjoy the varying countryside of Vietnam along the way. The train left at 10:30 so there were plenty of daylight hours to enjoy. I took a few photos which are somewhat blurry due to the moving train. 

We arrived in Hue around 9:45, checked into the White Lotus Hotel – very fancy and I had to check my booking because I thought it looked expensive. But it’s only $45/night. After leaving off our suitcases we walked in the cold (to us – 55!) to a nearby lively restaurant for a light meal.  Then slept very well.

In the open air patio at our hotel Tamcoe Sky Bunglow our hosts provided us with a mixture of western and Vietnamese breakfast foods- I really enjoyed the rice noodles in a light broth and the fresh fruit slices. We both like the Vietnam strong cafe!

We asked the owner for someone to drive us to our two destinations today and we were on our way a little after 9am.

The first and best stop was Trang An – a World Heritage Site. It offers relaxing 3 hour boat tours in row boats that took us on calm rivers and through water caves with about five stops to get out a explore the restored 10-12th century temples. Each boat takes four people and we were lucky to pair up with two women from the Netherlands with a sense of humor and excellent English. We really enjoyed this adventure.

Our next stop was an area of Hoa Lu Temples. Hoa Lu is known as the first capital of Vietnam in around 900 AD, and restored temples, tombs and sanctuaries can be found in the area. There is a large open area for festivals as well.

When we arrived we were told by people selling motor cycles rides around the area that there were 9 temples to explore and there was a map. We decided to walk at see what we could that way. I took a picture of the map but it wasn’t very useful.

We explored the nearest temple and enjoyed feeding the fish in the temple area pond. Next we headed down a long road, past an ancient looking gate, and walked past rice fields and homes until we found another small temple area. The best part of visit was the fruit – pomelo – that we purchased from the woman in the temple entryway. She sat next us and showed us how to peel off the inner skin – she was very sweet and the pomelo was delicious.

By the time we walked back to the main area we were running out of steam and just visited one more temple area before heading back to our lodging.

Back at the hotel we relaxed, read, and chatted with new arrivals from England, the Netherlands, Denmark and New Hampshire! Our hosts also offer dinner if ordered early in the day and we shared the meal with our friends from Melbourne Australia – Mo, Jazzy and Vivy. The meal and company was lovely and 3 people from Denmark joined us toward the end. Also the 6 year old was having so much fun with her new friends from the hotel.

Tomorrow? Oh, just an eleven hour train ride to our next stop – the city of Hue.