Hue Today

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Well here I am in Hue. It's not a long way from Hoi An, only 150kms, but it took 5 hours in the bus because the main highway is in bad repair in a lot of places and most traffic travels at 50km/hour max.

The beaches around Da Nang are having a building boom - huge resorts and residential estates with the big names like Marriott and Hyatt involved. I think there must be an interntional airportat Da Nanag from the American War so tourists can fly in/fly out. The resorts rival anything I have seen in Bali or Thailand - or on the Gold Coast for that matter.

I reckon that the suspension is taken out of all vehicles in Vietnam before they are sold - it would have to be for the ride to be so hard. Or the Vietnamese aretaking the piss out of the tourists.

North of Da Nang the road goes through a long tunnel of many kms under some mountains to get to the coastal plain where Hue is located. It is impressive engineering.

My first meal in Hue was at a local cafe and was delicious - bbq pork, rice paperrolls and peanut sauce, and a deep fried shrimp omlette - real Luke Nyugen type tucker. So I decided to try a duck dinner which was a big mistake because the duck was all gristle and skin and tough as an old boot even though the cafe was a bit upmarket and the receipe had a French flavour.

The local Hue Beer is refreshing and at 5% alcohol tastes a bit like Stella Artois - but only 40 cents a bottle.

It was disappointing to see how littered the countryside and waterways are with plastic bags because they are everyhere in palgue proportions. They look cute on sticks in rice paddies acting as scarecrows but when they blow away or get dropped or dumped then they become an eyesore and environmentasl hazard.

I am getting my travel plans for the rest of Vietnam sorted out while I am in Hue and booking things in advance so I can minimise my stay in Ha Noi except for seeing the local sights.

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