Nightbus to Hue

Hello!!!

Here to fill you in on our adventures in Hue - the cultural hub of Vietnam. But first, our surprisingly comfortable 14 hour nightbus journey to get there from Hanoi. I was really dreading the thought of being cramped up on a hot and sweaty bus for such a long time with a stinking toilet and not being able to sleep a wink, but actually it was fine! Apart from sometimes waking up to the sensation of the bus almost toppling over, we both slept pretty well - better in fact than our night fighting with the air conditioning unit on the boat on Halong Bay.

A room for the next couple of nights found, we headed out on some push bikes to explore the area. It's quite a small place really and even hotter than Hanoi - 35 degrees. Started to go a little insane with the heat, so retreated to a supermarket to cool down, look at the intriguing items on sale and buy lunch. Also purchased another unusual drink, this time, Lipovitan Beauty, For Ladies. Yes, that's right, a drink that claims to help enhance your beauty. I'm looking a bit tired after a week of travelling, a little bit of liquid beauty wouldn't go amiss. Tasted like a sweeter version of Red Bull. Sam ended up drinking most of it, no effects so far. After lunch, we cycled round the Citadel, the centre of Hue, where the Imperial Palace is and where the emperor governed from.

Next morning, we were picked up from our hotel and taken to the Perfume River for a dragon boat trip to visit lots of temples and tombs of prolific kings of Vietnam. Interestingly a recurring revelation was that many of them kept concubines and in fact on average had over 100 wives. Life as a concubine was pretty rubbish, having to bribe the eunuch to get you a night alone with the king in the hope that you might bear a son and become his Queen. With thousands of women all hoping for the same thing, it was pretty improbable that you would make it and so were destined to spend your life miserably hanging around in the harem buildings, never allowed to leave, as you were the property of the king.

Incredible lunch of vegetables, rice, tofu, fish and prawns on the boat. Lunch was supposed to be included in the price of the boat trip, but that turned out to just be the basics, so we had to order more. Also, drinks weren't included either. Luckily we had gotten wise to this from the Halong Bay tour so had taken loads of water with us. This sort of attitude to business in Vietnam is becoming all too familiar and leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth.

Tastiest meal of our stay in Vietnam to date was cuttlefish noodles and Bun Bo Hue - the best noodle soup ever, slightly spicier than others we have had in Hanoi and the noodles were much thiner. Also tried dragon fruit for the first time.

Next stop, Hoi An...