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Vietnam - Hue
26th Monday October
Departed Hoi An at 8am by bus and headed along the coast to Hue. Arrived in Hue around 12.30pm where we had to figure out how to find our hotel. Again there are many locals pouncing on you trying to drag you to their hotels. Finally found the road where the hotel was on, some sleazy man pounced on us with a card for the hotel we had booked into!! So we followed him, passed the name of our hotel and was taken down an alleyway…with our guard up we were trying to explain this isn’t right!!! He was then trying to tell us that there are 3 of the hotels and we had been booked into Hong Thien 1. We were then shown names of people booked into the hotel, ours wasn’t one of them!!! By now I was getting very short tempered and pissed off by the sleazy dude…he eventually showed us our booking online…the booking reference matched up so we agreed to stay! Our room was actually pretty nice so once I had chilled out we headed out.
We just generally strolled around Hue, stopped in a café for a drink and got talking to a local guy who does a lot of motorbike tours of Hue. At first we didn’t really listen to him, but then he pulled out a little black book containing lots of other backpackers, which had been on his tours. They were all very positive, he then showed us some photos of the places he would take us. Mr Loc seemed very nice and trusting so we bit the bullet and booked a tour for the next day.
Continued strolling around the town, stopping for dinner at a local café near us. We were convinced in by some young women who worked at the café, they were very friendly and funny. They went through the menu with us and we then got convinced into ordering some local Hue meals. Ryan had a mixed rice dish cooked and steamed in a coconut, I had a beef dish which included the beef and vegetables being wrapped in a tropical leaf…both were fantastic!! The flavors were incredible, so far our best meal!
27th Tuesday October
Morning came and let’s say I was a little nervous about our booked bike tour…never been on a bike I’m sure you can understand why! We were picked up at 8.30 on the dot by Mr Loc and his friend Linn, both had 110cc red Honda/Yamaha motorcycles. Helmeted up we got on the back and were immediately speed off through Vietnams crazy roads. I chose Mr Loc’s bike as I thought he would go slow for me…ha ha I don’t think so!!! 10 mins down the road we stopped off at a rural village market, where we saw the local trade. The market included everything from food, drinks, clothes, shoes to selling baby chicks and ducks!!! It was crazy, but very interesting to see. While here we also saw a bride and groom having pictures taken, she looked beautiful dressed in their traditional dress.
After the village we stopped off at a pagoda to see some Buddha’s perform their ceremony in the grounds. We were then taken to the peak where we looked over the north/south divide of Vietnam during the war. There were some American war bunkers as well, the view from the peak was spectacular. We then headed off to the tomb of Tu Doc, one of the 5 tombs in Hue, but the best one to see. The tomb is set alongside a lake, the grounds were huge, and there were also hundreds of steps everywhere which in 34 degree heat isn’t fun!! By the time we got back to the bikes it was midday, hot and hungry we stopped for lunch at a local café. Had some amazing beef noodle dish, your be amazed at how many times you can have a beef dish and it will taste different every time…the food is lovely!
After lunch it was back on the bikes, we were taken down some crazy local roads. After about a 20 min ride we stopped off at the Princess temple. This was a beautiful colorful temple, however it was situated upon a hill. This meant climbing more steps…our legs couldn’t take no more!!! After some chilled water we visited an incense village, here we had a go at making some incense sticks. They also made the Vietnam traditional cone straw hats here. Down some more crazy back roads we visited an old arena, here they used to watch tigers and elephants fight!!! We were told that they used to cut the tigers nails right down, so the elephant always won!
Back on the bikes, to my horror we were taken over some motorbike bridge, oh my god!! It was scary stuff, we then got caught in wacky races at a train crossing! Our last stop was Ho Chi Minh village, where we visited an old traditional mud house. An example of how the people used to live, an eye opener! The tour lasted 8 hours in total so we were very pleased, at first we thought $25 each was a bit much for a tour but we was very pleased with it. If we spent the money on a bus tour we wouldn’t of had the chance to see all the countryside like we did. In actual fact we loved it, I never thought being on the back of a bike could be so fun!!!
On the way back to the hotel we booked our flight to Hanoi, there was no way we were spending 24 hours on a coach or train!!! The flight was only $45 each so for an hour’s flight it was well worth the extra pennies!!!!
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