I've spent the last 2 days with wet feet! There has been a typhoon in Vietnam. I got on a night train headed from Hanoi to Hue (about halfway down the East coast of Vietnam) after a fun Thanksgiving dinner at the R+R bar in Hanoi.
It was an eclectic group of Americans at the meal. One guy was a war veteran and shared some stories, but most were in town for work. I spent a lot of time chatting about relationships with a young 40 year old woman from Colorado who was married from 28-31. I think she was the closest to my age of anyone there. After the turkey and corn we hit an Irish pub for trivia night. Then I raced thru the city in the rain to catch my night train.
About 80 Kilometers before Hue we stopped for a while and were eventually told that the tracks were flooded and we'd be waiting at least a few hours- maybe a few days. So I got off with some other travelers and we chartered a minibus to take us. After squishinng into the van for about an hour and passing through many sections of the journey where we couldn't see the road under the water we had to turn around. The rain was still coming down and the water was rising. We passed many flooded houses. We got back onto the train in time to learn the water was down a little and we could pass all the way through. This time we got about 15 KM from Hue before a part that was impassible. Wouldn't you know we were the first vehicle the police turned back.
We were wet and unhappy to be doing circles, but I was seeing amazing things outside my window and had no time commitments to get to Hue so it wasn't a big deal. And I had _Cider House Rules_ to read and was perfectly content with the excuse to sit and follow Homer Wells' life. Luckily there was a really friendly Vietnamese guy who spoke great English and he took a bunch of us under his wing. We stayed just north of the train in the Demilitarization Zone. I shared a room with some nice women from Melbourne. And after noodle dinner with the vietnamese 'tour guide' another traveler- native also- took me as he got his hair cut. The shop was a concrete floor and small room w an open front to the street. Pretty rustic by US standard, perfect by Vietnamese standards. I got my hair washed as the rain poured out front. Many Asians seem to get their hair washed at the hair dressers w/out a cut. And I got another treatment, but I'm really not sure if it was meant to be a face massage or a facial. Whatever it was it was not so relaxing.
The next morning everyone I was with decided to head back to Hanoi (about a 12 hour bus ride) and to catch a plane from there. I decided I figured a way to get to Hue; I really did not want to back-track, and I had heard the roads were passable. I walked around in the rain and found the bus station and got a ride to Hue. This time we made it to the edge of town and the rain was too high to enter. So we strapped our bags on our backs, took off our shoes, hiked up our pants, and waded the 200 yards through it. Lots of Hue was flooded and many places were closed. I met up with a girl I had met in Hanoi. We shared a room with one of her friends. We took cyclo rides (the one person chair with a rider in the back) through the town for a couple of hours and saw some nice parks. I'm sure Hue would be even better if not under water. And I got up early this morning to move on- now I'm in Hoi An. It's much warmer and I can even see the sun :)
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