Villa Hue

... western' sized hips!). There were only two beds left next to each other so Dave quickly grabbed them. He took the middle bed, and I took the one by the window. They were both top bunks. I wanted to sleep on the bed by the window because it seemed safer, but I soon noticed that it was directly above the toilet, and later discovered it was under the speaker which supplied the whole bus with the soundtrack to the Vietnamese variety show the driver had put on the TV.

Hue, Vietnam yellowbrickroad

... when I took a City tour, it wasn't too bad. Really interesting tour, booked at the DMZ cafe, with a great guide who spoke good English - we saw 3 tombs in the morning and after lunch went to the citadel and then a pagoda, finishing with a boat trip back up the river to the centre of town. Worth doing as it brings the history more to life than just reading from the guide book.

Hue, Vietnam freetofly

... was Minh Mang's, number 2 of 13. He was promoted to the throne at the age of 31 and ruled from 1820 to 1840. His tomb was actually built between 1840 and 1843 so he died before it was finished, meaning he never got to use it as his chalet, poor guy. Apparently, he was an excellent emperor, who put lots of useful and visionary social and agricultural programs in place for the people, and he was well loved.

I would say so: with 500 ...

After
spending about 10 hours in the car yesterday last night we decided to
stretch our legs and walk around Hue and eat! Walking past the hotel
area we went to search for a Hue specialty: Banh Chung Nhat Le. We
didn't see one other foreigner as we walked and when we found a spot
the owner of the restaurant was so nice and amazed that we found his
place. He motioned for us to sit on two ...

... news reports were talking of the Typhoon that killed 250+ in the Philippines hitting Vietnam on the Monday. Tuesday morning looked bad, but keen not to be stuck in a little town for a week we chanced the dash to Hue, a city 160 km south.

WE set off, battling against the wind at 0900. At 1200 we stopped for some lunch at a cafe and were told Hue is flooded, and the hurricane will hit at 1400. With 60km to go, we set off in a rush.

The hurricane hit us whilst we were on ...

... We went to have a drink at Hue Backpacker’s happy hour. I started on spirits. After that we played a game of pool at Ushi’s, where we got Ushi’s autograph. I was paying for a gin & tonic at the bar when a sassy little Asian with an Aussie accent came in. She wanted to play pool against us. She wated to play for a drink, she was obviously a prostitute, we wanted none of it, but couldn’t tell her. Finally we told her that were both into boys, young boys ...

... some of the surrounding countryside stopping off at a Japanese Bridge (simply a nice looking bridge), one of the American hilltop fortifications (interesting, but the guy kept going on about Apocalypse Now - annoying me, since I'm gutted I hav'nt seen it), a tomb complex (which was extensive and very impressive) and a Pagoda (famous due to a monk from here burning himself in protest of the American 'puppet' regime). It's nice to actually do something in Hue after a while of nothing!

... mean, what are the odds? Anyway, we'd signed up for a full day cultural tour while traipsing around downtown the day before, so our course was set. The bus picked us up around 9 at the front gates and we were off and running. There were about a dozen other tourists on board, the majority of whom were Asian with the stray Australian thrown in for good measure; also a guy from Canada and his French girlfriend. It was quite the mixed bag. Our driver turned out to be pretty surly ...

... the "to-do" list. On the way back to the hotel shuttle pick-up location, we thought we'd walk along the river promenade to get away from traffic, noise, and above all the touts. We had no sooner started our stroll but were approached by a young man, trailed by an equally young lady. The guy said something like, "Excuse me, are you busy?" to me. I immediately replied, "Yes I AM." I all but rolled my eyes and stamped my foot with impatience, thinking this person ...

... into the free happy hour again (it is much harder to avoid drinking every day when you are on your own because often the choice is either to drink or be alone!). Ultimately we ended up at a food stand for Pho for a late dinner and then ended up at another bar where we played pool and enjoyed a free welcome drink (common here for the first drink to be free). We didn't stay out late becuase we had to be up at 8 a.m. for our motorbike ride.

Wednesday was the official one-month mark of ...