Week 18 Hue to Hanoi

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Dear Blog,

Okay, I am so behind so going to condense the last couple of weeks. Ever since I had a massage in Vientiane I have had the energy of a sloth so going to be brief.

Left Hoi An for Hue passing some lovely scenery along the way, and spent the afternoon exploring the towns citadel. Took a bus tour of the Demilitarized Zone, visiting an American base, and a network of tunnels, museums etc which was a real eye opener into the Vietnam war, and not surprisingly quite a moving experience. Took a motorbike ride out to visit some sights around Hue which was good fun although my helmet kept slipping off my head. Fortunately though I didn't have to use it!

Arrived in Hanoi which is a lovely city, stayed in the old quarter, and spent a good few days walking around the crowded streets soaking up the atmosphere, and drinking lots of earl grey tea. Think I have finally convinced Dave of its life saving properties. Visited various museums, including a prison, blew some serious dong on 3 pairs of glasses, and now look uber cool in fake Dior's.

On our last night together I had images of a nice romantic candle lit dinner, but unfortunately the restaurant that I chose proved to be so bad that we actually left before our meal arrived. Think it may have had something to do with the fact that we could see our frozen pizza's being taken out of the freezer.. which was in the restaurant. Classy. So downed our beers and did a runner, which meant that when we finally did make it to a nice restaurant we had to rush our noodle soups before rushing off to the opera house to watch the Vietnamese Symphony Orchestra which was brilliant, although they did resemble a school band (in appearance anyway).

Spent the evening convincing myself that I wasn't bothered about the fact that I might never see the Yank again and bade farewell to each other the next day with a ke sera sera, whatever will be will be......

The course of true love never runs smoothly!

Fogg x

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