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The bus arrived at the 'station' (actually just a travel office!) and we were happier to see proper reclining bed seats instead of just the uncomfortable chairs we'd endured on the other buses...... as soon as we'd got settled that changed! Vietnamese sleeper buses are made for locals (who are mostly tiny) so stretching out is impossible and the beds don't lie completely flat - meaning you're at a constant angle. Instead of using the horn to make someone aware that they've made a mistake, like we do in the UK, the drivers here beep their horns to let other vehicles know they're overtaking, which means beeping every 2 seconds. This made me soooo irate that I wanted to throttle them all just a little big bit!! We did manage to get a few hours sleep despite this.. how we did I do not know?
Anyway our journey got a whole lot more eventful.... it was about 6.30am, we were about 20 minutes from Hue and the bus got pulled over by the police. There was just a single officer dressed in a dark green uniform (as Billy said, he looked like a runner bean!) and he hopped onto the bus then directed us to drive to the nearest station - which was back the way we'd just come. Now we were the only English people on this bus, so as you can imagine we didn't have the faintest idea of what was going on... and still don't really know. There was a lot of talking between the drivers and the officers for about an hour, and another officer then proceeded to get on the bus and take us to what seemed to be the main police station. It looked dead. More talking, what looked like very friendly and suspicious negotiating (?!) between them and then big bags of goods they'd transported with our luggage were unloaded and cut open to see what was inside. This probably went on for another 2 hours.. all 40 passengers were getting so agitated as nobody had told us anything, and it just seemed like we'd been forgotten about! We're still not really sure what they found/were trying to find, or if there was actually anything dodgy in the first place, as all that was in those bags were loads of balloons and packaged clothes.
After what felt like forever we travelled up the same highway for the second time, with our fingers crossed we wouldn't be stopped again! Half an hour later and we pulled up in Hue. PHEW. We weren't dropped off in the centre of the city, so our first impressions weren't great as it was just a run down old street! The main street that our hotel/hostel was situated on wasn't at all big, with a handful of high rise hotels and restaurants that were all done out very Christmassy. We checked in to such a lovely and friendly place, made to feel very at home, and were given the most amazing lemon tea I've ever tasted... a godsend after the bus journey from hell. To be honest the journey wiped us out and as we were both so shattered we did nothing the rest of the day other than to eat!
Hue is a very ancient and historical city, with the Citadel and many tombs set within four ancient walls, known as the Imperial City. Hue is split between the Perfume river, and this part of it is located on the other side. We walked across the bridge to find the night market (which was non-existent that night) and discovered not a lot else there either so walked back across the bridge. It all looked very pretty as there were lots of coloured hotel lights reflecting on the water.
It worked out well really as the couple of days we did have in Hue helped us to catch up on sleep and recuperate, so unfortunately we didn't do much else! I really wanted to visit inside the Imperial City but we left it until the day we were leaving, which didn't give us enough time to do that.... it's a shame as I felt I'd just passed through the city without finding out anything about it which is a shame. We did manage to see the outside of it though via cyclo, and it did look very ancient and historical.. Cyclos are to Vietnam what tuk-tuks are to Thailand, and instead of having the driver at the front, they sit behind you and pedal. Some of them don't have enough room for 2, so me and Billy were in separate ones this time but going down the roads side by side which was quite funny! An hour's ride and then we went to wait for our next bus. We were off to Hoi An and boy was I excited!
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Lisa Marshall Hi Nicola I hope you are ok. Happy Christmas to u both. Miss u loads keep in touch. Love u Love Lisa xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
nicbillyadventures Ahhhh Lis so nice to see a comment from you!! Happy Christmas to you even though it was a few weeks now, hope you had a lovely couple of weeks and are enjoying the new year too! Sorry I've not been in touch, it's a little bit annoying with phones etc over here and my SIM card doesn't seem to like texting very much! Miss you too! Glad I haven't been forgotten about :)) love you too xxxx