I THINK WE'VE HAD ONE THU MANY

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After 12 long hours - which was 2 hours longer than scheduled - we arrived in Hue. With little or no sleep we were all very tired and as I’m sure you can imagine, we were not sorry to see the back of the bus, or its crazy staff. Many of us chose to put our shoes on before we got off the bus just to annoy Mr angry even further. He shook his finger at us and shouted some rather unsavoury words but none of us cared - well its not as if he could throw us off now!

Its definitely not a trip that any of us would want to do ever again but I’m still glad we did it. Looking back it makes me laugh. It is certainly an experience I will never forget - or repeat.

We found a lovely hotel not too far from where the bus dropped us. We wanted to save money so we took a room on a high floor. We had great views from our balcony but the down side was the 84 stairs we had to climb every time we got in.

After lunch we started to walk towards the Citadel. It was a very hot day and even though Pete had a long sleeved shirt on he was still struggling with sunburn. He turned back and went to the hotel.

As we crossed the river towards the Citadel there was a large group of Chinese tourists taking pictures of each other on the bridge. As we walked past they grabbed Andy and got him to pose in their pictures. I’m not sure why, but they all found it hilarious. We did too but were also slightly confused by the whole thing.

We spent some time wandering around the Citadel. It was the old imperial city from around 1804. There is a lot missing now as it was heavily bombed during the war but it is still possible from what is left to see how impressive it must have been.

On our was out of the bathroom we were met by the Chinese people from the bridge. They were laughing and pointing which I assumed was just because they recognised us. When I turned around I realised that it was more to do with the fact that I had just walked out of the gents toilet. I was a little embarrassed but not for long. A small boy who couldn’t make it to the toilet in time - probably because I was in it - became the source of their amusement when he decided to have a wee in the sink drain.

On our way back towards the hotel we went in search of a bar which was recommended in our guide book. We had been looking for a while and were just about to give up when we wandered down an alley way and found The Café on Thu Wheels. Its just a little hole in the wall bar with graffiti covering the walls and ceiling but it had great reviews. As we walked in I heard a familiar voice saying “I know these two” I turned to see Fraser a guy we had been chatting to on the bus to Halong Bay. His friends then shouted “where have you been you’re about 6 beers behind” We were only planning on having one or two then getting something to eat, but that was never to happen. We had a brilliant evening and night time with them all. As the night wore on anyone who came into the bar got invited into the circle. We were even convincing passing people to come in and join the fun. There were people from all over the world. In the end there were too many names to remember so we all called each other Miss England, Mr Australia, Miss Brazil, Mr Latvia and so on.

Later into the evening Tom came in. He was a little quieter but sat talking to Andy for a while. All of a sudden Andy jumped up and shouted “Hey everyone listen to this” the room fell silent and looked towards him. “Everyone this is Tom” he said. “Hello Tom” the whole room shouted back. Andy then said “Tom tell them all what you’re doing.” He looked a little embarrassed but finally replied. “I bought a moped in Saigon for £250 and I’m riding it all the way to Hanoi, all I have is a tourist map, my tool kit consists of a tube of super glue and I don’t even have a coat” The whole bar burst out laughing and shouted back “YOU’RE MENTAL TOM!” It turned out that the only reason he had some super glue was because he had used it to repair a puncture!

The whole night was a great laugh from start to finish. Miss Brazil was teaching us and the staff from neighbouring hotels how to samba in the street, the Spanish lady who went kayaking in her sheepskin jacket in Halong Bay turned up and taught us flamenco in the street and Miss Scotland even had a go at requesting The Proclaimers by giving the music man a quick rendition of their well known hits. He listened for a while then slapped himself on the forehead, looked quite sad and said “ oh no this music I do not have” It was probably for the best.

After a cracking night we wandered home a little worse for ware. We had drank as much beer as we could manage in 7 hours, ordered three lots of amazingly tasty spring rolls and still we had not managed to make the bill more than £8! A special mention to Ms Thu the bar owner who does an amazing job. She must only sleep a couple of hours a night because they open at 6am for breakfast!

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