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So we booked a sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue... It was a 14 hour ride so we booked a night time sleeper bus, and with this we got a really good deal by buying all of our trips through Vietnam at the same time. The idea of a sleeper bus sounded great, and it was advertized to have AC... Maybe it did, for the driver. The seats were half sitting up, half lying down, and not adjustable. Also I'm not sure who thought plastic coated seats were a good idea in a country that never seems to drop below 30 degrees...
Anyhow we made it just fine and within an hour the ride was forgotten and all was fun again. We immediately checked into the hostel, had showers and went exploring. There were benches along the river, so we played cards in the sun. This was a funny highlight for us, apparently the locals also know the only card game that we do. Within 20 minutes we had 6 ladies from the villiage laughing and playing with us, even though noone could understand a word anyone was saying.
***Before you read the following, know that all worked out fine***
"Lets rent a scooter and go to the beach" Dean says
"Of coarse I know how, I've ridden dirt bikes before..." Dean says
So $5 later we have our selves a scooter, a map, and helmets of coarse. We get on and the hostel asks, "You know how to ride it right?" "Of coarse" 30 seconds later we nearly hit a van, and I (Sam) am worried. So I decided to drive instead, actually haven ridden one before. The beach was about 15 km away, and seemingly in a straight line from where we were. So we were off, and it was awesome. We were driving in the blazing sun, down roads in a very rural area with rice pattys on either side. There were local farmers drying the rice in one lane of the road because the pavement was so hot, it was cool to see.
We got lost...
Not overly, but the locals couldnt really help us because of the language barrier. We wound up riding in circles until someone who spoke a bit of english pointed us in the direction back to the hostel. We decided that was enough excitment for one day (or so we thought) so we headed back. We found ourselves again on the farm road. It was here a nearly naked man jumped infront of the bike and stopped us. He smelled of booze and didnt seem to speak any languages at all, just jibberish. he was yelling and holding the bike, seeming to threaten us. He was really old and later we were told he was insane. We were yelling and trying to pull away when a local man came and pushed him to the ground, we then sped off.
Another Km down the road I was a very rattled so we tried to pull over, I needed to dry my eyes. This is where we hit dirt and then the ground... The back tire spun out and boom... Dean was ok, me not as much. The bike pinned my leg and I got a few scrapes. We called the hostel and they picked us up, we made it back fine. when we were cleaning my leg it was worse than we thought so we saw a pharmasist got antibiotics and im all bandaged up now.
***All is great now***It was an awesome adventure***
After that we met alot of people in the hostel from all over the world and had an awesome night. In the morning we went to the Citadel in the area where the emporors lived, which was awesome. We Shopped and hung out in the sun. Today we took a dragon boat down the Perfume river to a Pagoda where a very famous protesting monk lived. It was beautiful, and is still used by monks today.
Now we are waiting for a bus to the next town, Hoi An. It's supposed to be an ancient town, and very small. I'm sure we will only spend 1 day there, and it's only a 4 hour ride!! Yay!
I hope noone stresses about the bike incident, we aren't. All is very good here, and we are having an amazing time
- comments
R&G Well the history you have driving a four wheeled car should have made you realize 2 wheels wouldnt be any better !! HA HA. Glad you're OK have fun
AuntS and U John Glad you guys are having a good time. Keep up blogging.
KMCG What a wild day in Hue....so relieved to hear that you are ok after your scooter mishap. Take extra care of that leg. We love following your adventure. So great to see you both having fun and smiling. Safe travels. Keep the blogs and pictures coming. You have lots of followers. Karen & Bob