PART TWO

So we caught the 6.30pm sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue, which took 13hrs. Surprisingly it was actually quite comfortable, well Danny wouldn't quite agree as he got the worst seat on the bus, positioned above the tiolet!! Which also meant he didn't really get any sleep. We arrived about 8am and had been shrewd enough to get out last hotel to book our next hotel along with a free taxi pick up. I couldn't handle being bombarded with cabs and motoriders after such a long journey! We didn't half get some looks from the other passengers when we had our bags carried for us to a well nice 7seater VW. Our first day was pretty none eventful, we headed out across the perfume river to the local market which had two levels the ground floor was food and home utinsils while the first floor was clothing. I have to say it was an experience nothing like Chaple market! It was really colourful and loud everyone wanting us to buy something from their stall, some of which had lovely aroma's from the spices and fruits while others just plain stank! The clothing was mostly knock off Ralphs, LaCoste's etc with some traditional silk blouses and robes. Next to the market was a Co-OP Mart we decided to head in and have a nose about, Danny had been banging on about wanting crisps we thought this would probably be the best place to get them it was actually quite cool as it had a connecting cafe and KFC (burger and coke - 90p) we didn't participate in the burgers and just grabbed the Vietmanese version of pringles and a weird can of drink (my choice of course) it turned out to be root beer! So we found a spot beside the Perfume River and just chilled for a while, trying to work out what to do for the rest of the day. This well old lady came up to us, at first I thought she was trying to sell us something so quickly blurted out "no thank you" but she jsut kept rambling on, then I thought she was having a go at us for sittiing on the edge of the paveing (which looked out on the river) we both were looking at her blankly and eventually she walked of muttering to herself. 5mins later when we were leaving she came back Im not sure how but I eventually worked out that she wanted out empty drink can; I think they get money for recycling them, so we gave it to her and headed of for the Citadel, a forbidden city only for the emperors and thier concubines. Unfortunatley when we got there the ticket office was closed for lunch, we were then hassled by a couple of cyclo riders which pushed Danny to the edge; especially as he'd had little sleep. So ended up making our way back towards the hotel to find a beer! On our way we bumped into a couple - Chrissiey and Stewart, that had been on the same sleeper bus and agreed to meet up with them later that night. We then stopped at a bar called 'Why Not?' (I love the name) for a beer and met a really nice fella - Pete, who worked on the ships after a couple of hours chatting we went for soemthing to eat and then met up with the others and another fella - Liam. We had a really good night; had a beer with them at their hostel and then the 5 of us headed to a bar called 'Why Not?' (I love the name) we had a few more beers and some pool, Chrissiey & Stew had decided they would be leaving the next day on a 'Top Gear Excursion' which I have to say I was well up for; but at the same time I wanted to stay and see soem of the sights, we then all got talking about Christmas and the possiblity of meeting up to celebrate together - Will have to keep you posted on that!

Day Two, we'd booked through our hotel a boat trip down the perfume river to see 2 pagodas and 3 tombs; we'd been told by the girl we were to have an English speaking guide - that didn't happen instead we were put on a boat with a couple that couldn't speak a word of English which made us feel uncomfortable and what made it worse is that as Danny was boarding the boat he knocked over the mans potted tree (which we think was something religous) the fella was not impressed at all, Danny apologised and tried helping him but the man just ignored him and didn't allow him to help! That aside we headed for the first stop Thien Mu pagoda, which had live in monks, it was so lovely and peacful, but I had made the mistake (as I wasn't thinking when I woke up) of wearing a skirt and vest top! Which didn't really go down to well, although no-one said anything to me I did feel a little out of place! The monks had to keep looking at the floor when I walked passed.
We then headed to our next stop which was about 45mins up river to Tu Duc Tomb; which we had to acces through the Viet jungle with 2 motoriders, the journey was brilliant - real Vietnam, Danny said it reminded him of scenes from Platon. Oh My God, when we reached the tomb, I feel in love with it straight away with all its stone carvings, sculptures and figures; it has to be one of the most magnificent place I've seen, I didn't want to leave - If I could have bought it I would have! We then jumped back on the bikes to reach Từ Hiếu pagoda, located in the jungle off a little dirty track. Từ Hiếu was evening more lovely than Thien Mu, it was much smaller but had more of a calming feel - at one with nature, plus there weren't any tourist (except for us) unfortuanely due to my attire we were unable to speak to any of the monks as they had to keep looking at the floor; however there was a young boy (practising monk) that said hello to us and blessed us - I felt utterly privilaged as did Danny and a sense of serenity washed over me! Our fourth stop was ......... which looked more like a fighting school from an old Bruce Lee movie, compared to Tu Duc Tomb it was quite dissapointing but still lovely. Our motoriders took us back to the boat for lunch which was alrite quite basic; noodles, rice, runner beans with some sort of meat and these fired meat pancakes. We were expecting to then head for the final tomb but our boat men informed us we'd seen them all and that it was time to head back, both myself and Danny were really confussed at this point; I was adiment that we had another sight to visit but Danny couldnt be sure as we'd forgotten our map. So we headed back to the hotel both feeling that we had been mugged off, which dampened the whole trip. As soon as we got back to the hotel we compained, the staff rang the boat men and having found out he had shortened our trip gave us a discount, for whic we were grateful as it helped us to calm down and chalk it up as experience. Later that night we met up with Liam and then headed down to the Brown Eyes bar; which was well cool with its graffited walls plus it had a DJ, we met up with Pete for a couple of coktails (75p each) we had another great night, me and Liam teamed up to play doubles on the pool table (winner stays on) while Danny and Pete chatted away. We won two games though I should point out it was actually Liam that won the games LoL I wasn't playing on form but still well enjoyed it, we met quite a few people that night most of which were heading to Hoi An - so was sure we'd bump into them again at some point.

Our final day in Hue, was spent chilling. We got up late and had originally planned to get a couple of bicycles have a ride round and visit the Citadel after checking out places to stay at our next desintation Hoi An. This took longer than we had thought and after 2hours I was well bored and was starting to get a bit agitated so we took a break and headed out for a beer and some lunch. Time seemed to fly by and before we knew it we were getting ready to go and meet Pete back down at Brown Eyes. We had a couple of cocktails and a few beers we decided to leave at a reasonable hour as we had to get up early to catch our bus. We were both in amazement though as this was the one night we both felt quite drunk, even though we'd drunk less.