Hue, Vietnam

Hue

After dinner at the Polite Pub in Hanoi, we made our way to the Hanoi train station and caught the night train to Hue. This was relatively painless as we slept most of the way and arrived in Hue about 10.30am the next morning. We checked into a brilliant hotel (recommended by Leo and Isabelle), spent a good hour washing ourselves, as it was starting to get dire. We even splashed out $5 to get our week's worth of washing done for us.

A big thank you must go to our Mums who wisely both provided us with hand sanitiser. This has been the best idea so far, especially after the below par train toilets. A quick update on the beard - we have hit Day 14 and the beard has evolved from Frank Nobilo to Inzimam style.

On Sunday afternoon we wandered around Hue checking out the shops. We stumbled across a supermarket that sold cans of Carlsberg beer for 70 cents NZ each. Needless to say, Tim loaded up his backpack with as many as he could carry!!! Hue is much smaller than Hanoi, and the streets are a lot cleaner (although there is still a bit of rubbish about), wider and less congested than in Hanoi. The people seem a lot more friendly down here too.

After drinking our haul of Carlsberg (and local beer, "Halida") we headed out for dinner to a place called the Stop Go Cafe, where Megan tried the local specialty "roll your own" spring rolls with chicken, lettuce and cucumber inside and satay sauce to dip them in. Very nice. Tim stuck with good old dependable fried rice (something like seven times in six days now). We also felt obliged to try the "big bottle Tiger" - 640ml Tiger beer bottles for about $1.40 each. Rude not to, we thought!

On Monday morning we set off bright and early and walked through Hue's Citadel, which is now largely ruins of what was once the emperor's palace/meeting halls/etc, where he and his 104 wives and many more concubines used to reside. Most of the buildings were really cool, but for a place that is proudly described as a world heritage site, there seems to be no effort made to repair, maintain or even keep it clean.

After that we hired motorbikes, complete with "tour guide" drivers and visited the Tu Doc tomb (Tu Doc ruled as emperor from about 1840-1880). Once again, the tomb and surrounding buildings, gardens, etc were very nice but poorly maintained. The motorbike rides to the tomb and back were perhaps the highlight of the morning - it's amazing we are both still alive.

This afternoon we are taking it easy, perhaps a few beers and some pool, before finding a place for dinner and then watching Arsenal take on Newcastle. We have a booked a train for Tuesday morning to Danang, about another 100-odd km south down the east coast of Vietnam. Tim's beard is now at Day 15 and he looks more like Inzamam every day.

Overnight
train to
Hue











Tim and
big guns













Hue's
Citadel


















Hue











Pretty
pond













Odd one
out











Megs in
the
Citadel