Crossing the DMZ: Hue

Rolling out of Hanoi's Ga Hang Co train station, I found myself alone in my four-bunk "soft-sleeper" compartment. Guessing I must have settled into the wrong berth, I wandered up and down the coach looking for someone official to talk to. A quick check with a uniformed guy half-heartedly cleaning the car's bathroom confirmed that I was in the right place. Based on previous developing-world-train-adventures (think India) I just assumed I'd be sharing second hand cigarette smoke and fighting for elbow room with drunk travel mates, all the while dodging flying hot noodle soup...at least for the first few hours. Not this time around, apparently. For the next 13 hours, I shared the entire train car with a grand total of three other travelers and one persistent s.o.b. of a mouse. Perfect.

Arriving in Hue around 10:00 am, it was easy enough finding a place to stay for the several days. The hordes of rickshaw, motorbike, and taxi touts descended like starving vultures on anyone exiting the station. Before I knew it - and against my better judgement - I had given into one of them and was zipping down back alleys on the back of his bike looking for a recommended hotel. To his credit, my driver took me straight away to the Phong Nha Hotel without even a suggestion that he be my permanent tour guide for the duration of my visit. Cool.

At first glance, Hue looked like a nice place - infinitely calmer than Hanoi - but the souvenir hawkers and wanna-be guides are definitely a little more aggressive than their northern counterparts. Feeling a little groggy from lack of sleep (thanks, mouse) I sacked out for a few hours and woke up with just enough daylight left for a quick run down to Hue's Citadel, the part of town within the walls of the old imperial city built in 1804. In addition to being the site of one of the biggest, hardest fought battles of the Vietnam (ie. American) War, Hue also has a reputation for its architecture - the Citadel (or what remains) is a Unesco-designated World Heritage Site. At any rate, I wandered around just enough to get my bearings and find a cold beer. Easy enough on both points. Hue is dominated by the Perfume River and the Citadel's Flag Tower is easily seen from almost anywhere. Barring that, the super-plush, five-star Imperial Hotel makes a decent enough landmark. Hue is also most definitely a tourist town - cafes, bars, hotels, curio stands (at least in this neighborhood).

On my very short walk, I also got a sense of Hue's darker history - old, brick walls around the Citadel still pockmarked with bullet holes, kids playing on aging American tanks and artillery pieces (a few sneaking off to smoke cigarettes inside a battered armored personnel carrier), street vendors selling old gas masks, canteens, combat boots, deactivated (I hope) mines, and a couple rusted-out Colt .45 pistols.

Lots of history in Hue - I'll start sorting it all out first thing in the morning.