Hue, Vietnam

On 30th March, after only one night in Hoi An, which was a shame; comfortable hotel and friendly people, we headed to Hue (pronounced 'whey'). Yummi at our Hoi An hotel had phoned ahead and booked us a lovely room for $25. We took the four hour bus in the morning (it was a sleeper bus for some reason) but we got three seats on the top at the back and it was pretty comfortable. We were sharing the back row with two French girls who were moaning that they hadn't been told it was a sleeper. I didn't see the problem, you could stretch out and get the good views.

The driver did keep stopping though, mainly for toilet breaks but conveniently at a pearl shop or restaurant when all we wanted was to get to our destination. We did stop at the Marble Mountains though just outside Denang. We took the opportunity to climb up inside, take a look at all the statues and a good view from the top. Liam bought a moon marble (like a huge marble or crystal ball).

When we arrived in Hue, someone from the hotel was there to pick us up from the bus stop, but as soon as we got back to the hotel, Cliff realised he'd left his new hat (a grey military hat with a red star, that he bought in HCMC) on the bus. So whilst Liam and I went up to our huge room, the guy from the hotel took Cliff back to the travel office. They tracked down the bus driver and Cliff and his hat were finally reunited by a man on a scooter who brought it back for him. A happy ending.

Other than for the Battle of Hue during the Vietnam War and the Hue Massacre, the city is now known for it's historical monuments - and is another UNESCO heritage site. But at this stage, we have started to pass on trying to see everything and concentrated more on exploring Hue on foot.

We had good afternoon coffee and cakes at La Boulangerie Francaise, a bakery that trains young Vietnamese. Excellent coffee and chocolate tarts. Liam finally decided to have a haircut and Cliff joined him by having a shave and his ears cleaned.

Cliff completed another training run, along the Huong river. On our second evening we headed back to the travel office to catch our final night bus (and the final bus of Vietnam) to Hanoi - about 700km (435 miles) away. This time we had booked seats/beds in the main part of the bus (avoiding the back) and whilst they were pretty comfortable, I had cold air blasting me in the neck. It was a long night.