Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We left Cat Ba island on 16th December by a combination of bus & boat.. speed boat.. or soo they said. The boat stopped at Haiphong where we jumped on a local bus to take us to Ninh Binh.. what a mistake that was. The bus journey was a bit of a joke really, overcrowded is an understatement. Felt really sorry for the 6ft+ guys on the back seats, no where at all to put their legs. Our original plan was to stop in Ninh Binh for a couple of nights but once arriving we felt there wasnt much to do that interested us enough. We went looking for somewhere to eat in the afternoon and all we could find was a coffee house that said on the window they served 'fast food' .. it was more like slow food.. NO drinks.. They gave us the menus which had a total of 5 dishes on, 2 that werent available... which left us with not much choice really. We waited ages for our food.. wondering where our drinks were .. the food came and still no drinks.. we then finished our food and STILL no drinks .. which to that point we decided to leave..then the apologises came. Later that night we just ate in our guesthouse and walked to the train station to buy our train tickets for the following day to Hue. On our walk to the train station we came across a bloke attempting mission impossible.. only trying to put a chest freezer on the back of a moped.. wasn't having much success.. funny to watch though.
The following morning we got up early to make our way to the train station for our 11 hour journey. Stocking up on food to last us the day, we bought a bag of chinese oranges (most fruit Peter's eaten in ages), a choco pie each (Vietnams version of wagonwheels), Peter got a plain baguette whilst Lucy tried something different.. asking the lady what the meat was on the counter.. she couldnt speak english and pointed to a duck egg.. so we presumed it was duck and then ask if i wanted something that can only be decribed as cotton wool on it .. Lucy said why not.. turned out it actually tasted really nice.
11 hours passed reasonably quickly having gone to the toilet a few times, basically a hole in the ground that went straight onto the train tracks, tried a 333 beer.. not very nice. Played cards and read books etc.
We arrived in Hue at 7.45pm and the walk to where all the guesthouses were a fair way in the rain so we decided to grab a taxis with a couple who were going the same place.. we tried to bahter the driver down to minimum price, we thought we had succeeded and started walking towards the car to get in, then all of a suddern he drove off with somebody else in the back.. obviously they paid more.. soo in the end we walked the 3km in the rain.. suppose we needed the exercise after sitting on our bottoms all day.
We spent two nights in hue our first night we just went to a bar and played pool and tried more of the local beers.. i know you must think we drink a lot of beer but its actually cheaper to drink beer than a soft drink. Our room that night wasnt very pleasant, it was very damp and had a foisty smell to it, the bedsheets were damp as well.
The morning after we got up early and headed towards the market and 'shopping centre', more like asda really. It was horrible weather so we decided to purchase a poncho each, which have proved to be a good buy so far and come in very handy.. even though we might look a bit daft in them. The market was like every other market.. same same but different. People working in their Pj's, mopeds nearly running you over every minute and people saying 'you buy from me.' In the afternoon after a cheeky KFC (our first in asia.. the chips are better than England but apart from that nothing else) we set off around the citadel for a spot of historic sightseeing.. would have been a tad more interesting if we had got a guide. At one point you could dress up as the King & Queen.. so Peter being Peter and Lucy being Lucy thought it would be funny (take a look at pics) That night we found a cheap resturant called Hot Tuna, both had duck with veg ..hmmmm delicious!!
- comments