After the beer and the relaxing we fell asleep in our cabin but unfortunately not for long, during the night we were woken repeatedly. Either the train came to a standstill in a way that made us think someone had pulled the emergency brake or the temperature had increased or deceased which required removing or placing back the blanket. The lack of any cushioning in the mattresses didn’t help either. We gave in at round 07:30 as the train had rolled into a station and we opened the curtains to look through the window which was covered with raindrops.
With a cup of something that was sold to us as coffee we sit back and look outside as the train leaves the station and kill time reading. Miles of track pass under us as I am on my way with you because I am away from you, kedekedeng kedekedeng. We pass endless rice fields with farmers walking through them and buffaloes plowing. It’s the Vietnam you see in travel programs and yes indeed it is real and very relaxing to observe. After three more hours the train slows down as in enters the city limits of Hue and we get ready to leave this experience behind us.
As we move towards the exit of the station we walk into a small crowd of taxi drivers who immediately apply their sales techniques to get us into their taxi. Their technique is to wait until one of them gets us to show the address of our hotel, once the destination is known a bidding war starts including some gentle arm pulling. In the end we settle with the first driver that gives us a price below 50.000 dong, although we are well aware that the ride is overpriced we are happy to be on our way to a good shower.
Besides the taxi driver another young men joins our taxi in the passenger seat and he introduces himself as Lau. Lau knows everything and Lau can arrange anything for us. Lau only has happy customers and has two little black books with handwritten reviews of which he hands us one each opened on a page with a Dutch review. We flick though the pages and agree that he can come meet us at the hotel two hours later to give more information. We check in, have a shower and plate of fried rice for lunch before we meet Lau again.
Lau gives us the info on the one day motorbike Top Gear special tour and the two day extra special tour. Although we had some sympathy for Lau earlier, the shower and food has freshened our mind and we thank Lau for his service and decide to be our own guide for the coming days. We walk into town and book a scooter for two days starting tomorrow, the rest of the day we read and sleep by the pool and go for dinner down the street. As we finished another serving of spring rolls Marlies realizes that today is December first, this means three years have passed since we officially became a couple. Three years of endless laughs, love, passion and great adventures and three years of getting to know each other better and better and realizing again and again how lucky we are to have met at Valtifest. Three years full of memories both happy and sad but most important of shared memories. To many more years to come with this beautiful women.
