Hue - no mans land

Trip Start Sep 06, 2007
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Trip End Sep 04, 2008


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Flag of Vietnam  ,
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

We took the over night sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue (Central Vietnam), this area had been hit the previous week by a Typhoon.  Our bus pulled in at 8am - just to say, the night on the bus was a disaster, Fiona slept reasonably well, I just didn't sleep at all. We were sleeping at the back of the bus beside an Ozzie sister and brother, they were sound and chatted away no problems.  People began to nod off so I decided I would too, not for love nor money could I sleep.  I remember at one stage my entire body lifting off the seat/bed into mid air - its the roughest night sleep I've had yet - yes that does mean it was worse than the over night ferry from Ko Tao!

On arrival in Hue, the rain was lashing down, we eventually got a cyclo and asked him to take us to a hotel we had chosen from the Lonely Planet.  At this stage of the morning we were exhausted.  Fiona hadn't been feeling too well for the past day or so and therefore sleep was needed.  Later that day, I took a walk around the city, city is an exaggeration as small town would cover it.  It wasn't long before I realised there is nothing to do here.  We signed up for a city tour the following day, thank god the weather was dry as this tour involved wandering around hand-craft 'pester the tourist' villages of incense sticks and hats and a lot of old King's tombs.  The best part was, as we were wandering this particular tomb, walking for ages, our tour guide informs us as we get to it that actually no one knows where the king was buried and it might not be here.  Anyone that did know had their head cut off. After one too many tombs we visited the Citadel.  This was really cool, it was the original working place of many a king.  The Americans bombed it to pieces in the war and are now paying to rebuild it!  One king had 500 mistress', one wife and 142 children...busy man!  Finally on our trip we took a boat up the Perfume River, a similar event to the perfume pagoda as the heavens opened once more!!

Later that evening we met up with our faithful Denmark buddies and went out to a Vietnamese restaurant with traditional music... In Ireland you often come a cross some scraggy old scruff playing the spoons...well here in Vietnam women play the miniature cup's (one's similar to the one's in your dolls house when you were 5).  All in all, Hue is a very quiet little town, we decided to cut our losses and bail ship onto Hoi An asap!!
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