Journey To The Center Of Vietnam

No this isn't some sci-fi fantasy movie with Josh Hutcherson. This is literally a journey to central Vietnam by me, sorry to disappoint hahaha!

First of all, central Vietnam is probably on of the most beautiful places I've been to, it's so beautiful it's the reason why I decided to go on an 11-day backpacking trip from northern to southern Vietnam.

Vietnamese Forbidden City (left); Ancient river town of Hoi An (right)

If you're not familiar, central Vietnam is home to the former capital aka the Forbidden City of the Nguyen Dynasty and the ancient river town of Hoi An. As I was planning my Hanoi itinerary, I decided to visit other provinces as well and while doing so, an image of the Vietnamese Forbidden City appeared on Google Images which caught my attention. I found out that it's literally at the center of the country and thought, if I'm going there might as well go all the way to Saigon instead of going back to Hanoi. And I did, haha!



There are three ways to visit Hue from Hanoi; bus, train, and plane but I only think the last 2 are the only acceptable options because you need to take into consideration the traffic when you go by bus. I decided to go by train to save time and money. Actually (and surprisingly), plane tickets (P2,000) are cheaper than train tickets (P3,000) but I thought of the additional night at the hostel (P250) and the cab + hassle from the nearest airport when I arrive in Hue(30mins away to the city center), so I booked an overnight train ride instead with the Reunification Express.



Built by the French in the early 90s, the historic train connects Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City but eventually stopped operations due to the conflict between the north and south. It reopened to connect the cities again in the late 90s after the war, hence the name "Reunification Express."

Four beds per cabin

I booked it online four months early. Seats are; hard seat, soft seat, hard bed, and soft bed which starts at P1,750 ($35) for the hard seat to P3,000 ($60) for the soft bed. I got the soft bed of course because the travel time from Hanoi to Hue is more than 12 hours and I need sleep, hahaha!

The trip was fine, not the best because there were several times that I woke up thanks to the big bumps on the track. There are two sockets for the lower beds and two for the upper bunks, but I had to charge so many gadgets (powerbank, phone 1, phone 2) and good thing I brought a multi-socket adapter so I was able to charge them all without using my roommate's socket, very helpful!

Hello roommate!

Hallway

Some kids on the Vietnam countryside, on the way to Hue from Hanoi

You'll know you're approaching Hue aka home of the Nguyen Emperors when you see Imperial Watchtowers like this:

That's the Forbidden City at the back, surrounded by a moat

We left Hanoi at around 8:30PM and arrived at Hue 9:00AM and it was drizzling. I hailed a cab to my hostel to check-in and eat. They don't serve food on board by the way so learn from me and bring your own meals/snacks when you take the sleeper train, hahaha!



I got to my hostel and a bunch of Caucasian backpackers welcomed me at the lobby, watching the Grammy Awards. Day 1 in the city and the image of the Forbidden City in my head got immediately replaced by Ryan Gosling, hahaha!