Hue - Hoi An

---

Hello!

After the overnight train from Hanoi, we just spent one night in Hue, but it was enough to get a real flavour of the place. It seemed much quiter than the bustling Hanoi (as you would expect) and we spent several hours just wandering around the streets when we arrived. We found a brilliant French bakery for lunch and in the afternoon visited the Citidal, an ancient emporer's palace, with many ornate asian buildings / architecture which have been restored. It was a huge site, and takes up a considerable amount of the city's land area. In the evening we relaxed and spent more time wandering around the lively streets near our hotel, which had a real atmosphere as all have busy open bars which surround the roads.

The following day we had a brilliant lunch in a local restaurant (with meals averaging about 1 pound each in cafes/restaurants its difficult to turn down!) before catching the afternoon bus to Hoi An. What should have been a simple 3 hour trip took slightly longer than anticipated, as the driver had to stop several times to fix the suspension (!) and then was stopped by the police and fined for overtaking in a tunnel! The scenery was stunning though, as it climbled high into the Vietnamese mountains. And the bus was pretty entertaining itself, as instead of seats, it had rows of beds, some of which were elevated in the air which we were in.

We arrived in Hoi An in the early evening, and after checking into our hotel walked around. It was a really nice place, all oldy-worldy with a river and lanterns everywhere. There were millions of silk shops (Amy ALMOST got a dress but then backed out!) and we found a very good Indian restaurant!

The next day we rented bicycles and cycled about 6km to the beach! It was a really hot day and fun (apart from Amy's chain coming off!) We spent some time at the beach before coming back via a riverside cafe for fruit juices. In the evening we cycled through some of the quieter suburban areas.

We have to dash now because we need to catch a train, but we'll tell you about Nha Trang soon!

A and R x

---

Comments

[Russell and bod]

Hiya!
Hey there you crazy kids! Still loving the pics -the beach one made me especially jealous. It all looks amazing. Take care and I promise no more random calls! Love R and H x x x