Phuong Hoang Hotel Hue

It has been a while since I wrote a blog as we have been at sea for 3 days on a boat tour around Halong bay and a night in a HOTEL on Cat ba Island...we are getting good at this bartering stuff (Or Sam is) and we by far paid the cheapest on the tour.

We met up with Alana and Shane again (the Canadian couple we did tubing with) and two ...

So the big news is that we have completed a border crossing with
almost no mishaps or ripoffs - apart from running out of money! But
more on that later.
Our final day in Hoi An began with the man from the post office
coming to our hotel to wrap up the mountain of clothes that Annika had
purchased ready to be put on a slow boa...

We arrived in Hue after a long over night 14 hour bus journey, complete with two horrific toilet stops, yet to make everything alright the sun was shining and finally the jumpers come off!

We started walking the streets to find a place to stay when we were offered a lift on the back of a motorbike (rucksacks included) to what sounded li...

The 13 hour train ride from Hanoi to Hue went surprisingly smoothly - most likely due to the quantity of drink the previous night with the other backpackers. We bid our fellow travellers goodbye & hopped off the train in Hue around 8am & was met by our driver & english speaking guide (Vung). The plan was for us to spend the first hal...

Had our first what i'd call proper Vietnam train journey on Wednesday night to get to the town of Hue. After the luxury of the trains to and from Sapa this one was a little rougher around the edges. Still pretty flash compared to others in the world, although with no welcome basket. The only down side appeared when the cockroaches were spotted! ...

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Happy New Year)

New Year's Day is to be spent in and around Hue City starting with a Dragon Boat ride up the Perfume River to the Thien Mu Pagoda.

Along the way it is interesting to see many people and boats dredging sand (by hand) from the river bed for use in the building of new houses. The boa...

To avoid a 14-16 hour journey by bus, we cheated, and caught a flight from Hanoi to Hue. Hue (roughly pronounced hway) is just above the mid-way point of the length of Vietnam). Unfortunately, this meant a 3.50am wake-up call for us. On the other hand, it also meant we had arrived in Hue, were checked in and ready to hit town by 9.00am...

Here I sit having traveled from Saigon to Hue in Central Vietnam. I checked into a little hotel and went off to explore. I got some dinner at a quaint cafe, then went off to see some more sites again.

The next day, I woke up dead tired and remained so for the whole day as I explored a few pagodas, Tu Doc's Tomb, Bunker Hill, and the ou...

Yesterday was our last day in Hanoi and we took the opportunity to go see the Hoa Lo prison (what the American soldiers nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton). The prison was built by the French colonists in 1896 to hold criminals and resistance troops that were captured. Today, only part of the prison remains as a museum, the rest has been replaced by sup...

Arrived in Hue about 11 AM. Took a fleet of taxis to the hotel -- an old big French built hotel, where we left our stuff and went for a sidewalk lunch -- had banana pancakes. Walked to the Perfume River and caught a Dragon boat up the Perfume River to the Heavenly Lady pagoda, back on board to TuTuc's tomb -- the fourth king of Cambodia. Saw his...