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Friday 15th May 2009, Hue.
We arrived in Hue from Ninh Binh by sleeper bus, arriving about 9 in the morning. What an experience that was, being a bit taller does not come in handy on these buses as theres not alot of room!! I swear everytime we took a bend I felt like I was about to fall off the bed! It didn't help being in the top middle bunk.
On arrival there was a man with a board (with names) waiting for us to take us to the hotel. As Vietnam does not really have backpackers its pretty much cheap hotels/guest houses all the way. We stayed at Sports 2 Hotel, and evn though its only classed as a 2 star it was pretty good!! Two double beds for a start! And a bath!
Once we'd had a morning cup of coffee we were shown to our rooms. From there we freshened up and then around late morning we headed out for an explore.
We started off by trying to find some lunch, we had been told by the lady at the hotel a good street to head too. But us being us and the map not that easy to read we couldn't find it (We found it later on that day from a different direction.) But we did find a nice Italian to have lunch at. Very nice. Afterwards we had a look in a few shops as Caroline was in need of a pair of shorts. She couldn't find some she liked until we went into one shop that made to order! And they could be ready at 8pm that night. At only 6 pounds, a bargain. Once we had ordered these and got our bearings we decided to head to The Citadel, the former imperial palace. We had intended on walking, it was only over the river and a bit futher down but a very persistant cyclo driver wouldn't leave us alone! So after a lot of bargaing and what we thought was a set price of 25 000 dong we got in and let him peddle us to the enterance. We had to cross the perfume river (Song Huong) to get there going over the Phu Xuan Bridge. Once at the Citadel we then had to have a heated debate with the cyclo driver about what we thought was an agreed price. He was now telling us it was 25,000 each and we knew that we had agreed 25,000 for the two of us. I know its only a pound but it was the principle of the matter!! It the end we paid the 25,000 and Caroline flung him an English pound as he requested! Its not like he can exchange it so he must have wanted it for display!!
The construction of the moated Citadel (The Imperial palace) began in 1804 under the reign of Emperor Gia Long. There is an outside wall and an inside wall and its possible to walk all the way round. The moat ran around the outside wall so visable before we entered.The walls are 6m high and it is around 2.5km all the way around. Also within the inside it contains the Forbidden Purple City (Tu Cm Thanh). This was reserved for the private life of the emperor. We spent a good 3 hours here if not longer. It was a lot more interesting than we thought. There is alot of land within it that has nothing on it and also alot of re-construction work going on due to a lot of it being destroyed by American Bombers. A lot of it is now used for agriculture but the area is still very beautiful and intriguing to look around. This included old buildings, with wonderful artitechture and colurs. Most of the remaining buildings have mosaic walls and roofs, with dragons built into the buidings as well. Once we'd had a look around the busy bit we cut through a open gate, not sure if we were meant to be there but no one stopped us, and headed across a field towards some statues. Also from here we could have a look at the reading house and the tennis courts. Then we started to explore around the walls and this is where we came across 2 elephants. Very exciting, the emperor used to keep them but we hadn't expected to see any ourselves. We were a little unsure as one of them was chained around one foot but this was to stop him wondering off. Which would please the tourists. We did later see him having a bath with a very big hosepipe! Bliss in that heat!!
On leaving the Citadel we headed back over the river and then had a couple of beers on the water front. Lovely although still roasting hot. It was about 5pmish but it never cools down here. Amusing moment of drawing a toilet had at this bar as no one understood the word toilet. But the picture, although bad, got us there. Once back at the hotel, we showered and then went for dinner at a french/vietnamese restaurant (About 8pmish). Caroline also picked her shorts up which to her a surprise to her she actually liked. Although she says they feel wierd as they actually fit. After dinner we had a couple of drinks at the Why Not bar before retiring to bed. Caroline also bought some red fisherman trousers from the shop opposite the bar, very nice and taken up within 10 minutes! Impressive!
Saturday 16th May 2009, Hue
Late start today as we felt like a lay in. So by the time we headed out it was time for a late breakfast/early lunch. We had some lunch at a place called HOT TUNA and then went for a walk. We had considered doing a tour today but the city tour was pagodas and the Citadel, we are bored of pagodas and we've done the citadel, the other tour we considered was the DMZ tour but again neither of us are that hot on the war. So today was spent exploring. We 1st went to the market over the river, it smelled to high heaven of hot fruit!! It was mainly a food market and as it was extremely hot the smell was fairly vile!! We then did a little toiletorie shopping at the supermarket. We stayed in here a little longer than needed due to the air conditioning. From here we had a 7up on the river banks with the locals. Some eating sea food and others just playing Saturday afternoon cards. They get very serious about their cards!! (Sound familiar dad!!)
Once back on the other side of the river we decided on a river tour for an hour. After a hot bit of bargaining from Caroline we bagged an hour on the boat for a pound each!! It basically went down one side of the perfume river for half an hour and then turned round and came back. Whilst aboard we saw some water buffalo playing at the waters edge, we saw the locals leading their daily lifes on the river. This included a man washing his hair in the river-can't be that dirty can it? A lot of people seem to live on river boats along here.
After the boat I was craving ice cream, so we decided on Italian home made ice cream at the restaurant from yesterday. It was very nice but discovered that beer and ice cream really don't mix that well. The first part of the evening was spent on the internet and phone calls, so we didn't head out for dinner untill gone 9pm. We went to a restaurant called Friendly which was recommended for Hue speciality sampler menus at good prices. I had one of the menus and this included Vietnamese pancakes, Beo cakes and various other bits including flour cakes wrapped in Banana leafs. All very nice and glad to have tried some speciality food. From here we went for a night cap at Why Not bar and also bumped into Sarah and her boyfriend (The American girl we met in Hanoi). That was nice and after a drink with them we headed home to pack ready for leaving the next day.
Sunday 17th May 2009, Hue
We left Hue at 8:30am this morning on a seater bus for Hoi An. We think the driver throught he was at the Grand Prix at times, he was taking the mountain bends at a hell of a speed. But we survived! Including a half hour drink and pee stop we arrived in Hoi An just after 12pm. To be continued on the page for Hoi An....
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