Đi một ngày đàng, học một sàng khôn (Travelling broadens one's horizons)

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We've now arrived in Hue (pronounced 'whey'😉, the former Imperial City of Vietnam, which was heavily destroyed in the Vietnam War and attacked during the infamous Tet Offensive, which turned the tide of public feeling in the US about the war (that's the end of the history lesson....for the time being).

Having been given the option by Ms Anh (the travel agent) to take the bus to Hue at either 8am or 1.30pm, we decided to opt for extra sleep and chose the latter departure. This meant that we were able to wake up really late. Well, that's how I wish it had happened. Instead, Elana had to have yet another fitting for her dress- this time at 10am! And Elana wasn't even sure that she wanted the dress anymore.

I was therefore kicked out of the room half-asleep and sent downstairs. The next I saw of Elana, she delivered the wonderful news to me that the dress needed altering AGAIN- and she was the one who didn't really want anything made for her at all! Now, we were faced with a down-to-the-wire end to our stay in Hoi An, as Elana waited with baited breath for her once-again altered dress, and I waited for my tax receipt.

As if this wasn't enough, I suddenly heard a yell from the other side of the lobby, "MICHAEL HOLMSTOCK, COME HERE NOW!". Elana was in the middle of an epic battle with the front desk, as we had been told that we had not paid for our room. This was another gripe to add to an ever-growing list of problems with the hotel. My presence seemed to do the trick as the matter was sorted out quite quickly and we decided to head for breakfast.

Breakfast was a nightmare too. Since the buffet had closed, the hotel gave us free vouchers for an a la carte breakfast. I ordered eggs over easy, whilst Elana clearly asked for eggs sunny side up. Mine came back fine, but they presented (to Elana's delight) an omelette. We also dined on stale cornflakes.

Full from our wonderful breakfast, we awaited our bus to Hue, which could not have come soon enough. We didn't actually know what we were looking for, except that it was likely to be bus-like. It turned up slightly late but we were soon on our merry way to Hue.

The journey took about 4 hours, during which time I saw some quite simply breathtaking scenery as we wound our way into the Marble Mountains, giving us a fantastic view over Da Nang. We were all slightly concerned by the various hairpin bends that the bus had to take, and hoped that we didn't have to go much higher (the tops of the mountains were covered by cloud). Thankfully, but rather disappointingly, the bus went through a tunnel, which bypassed all of this.

Eventually, having passed numerous fields, we found ourselves in Hue. Thua Thien Hue, that is (which was not the Hue that we wanted). Thankfully, the bus continued and about 30 minutes later we found ourselves in Hue City itself (the one we wanted).

As we departed the bus, we were immediately surrounded on both flanks by irritating people trying to flog us their taxi/hotel room/cat (well....maybe not their cats), and even followed us as walked down the streets. This, as one may imagine, gets rather annoying rather quickly, and I decided to lead us into the nearest hotel to get away from the harassment, and to get a taxi to our hotel. The hotel bellboy was really kind and sorted us out, despite the fact that we weren't staying at the hotel.

Our hotel, the Imperial Hotel is a welcome change from our hotel in Hoi An. It is quite a tall building, and we are on the 8th floor. Moreover, we have a great view over the Perfume River, and are close to the old citadel.

Since Elana was particularly hungry, we decided to eat at the hotel's restaurant, which was a surprisingly reasonable sushi bar. We got to sit on cushions in the traditional Japanese style (which, in a very small way, made up for the fact that we weren't able to go to Japan on our holiday as we had originally intended). The sushi was authentic and very tasty, however, for me the highlight was the rowdy Japanese group in the room behind us. Despite the fact that their shouting was rather distracting for the meal and ruined the ambience, one of the party came out with the current quote of the holiday. It was so good that if we had been back on Tour, he would have certainly won the shmuck of the day t-shirt. Clearly the worse for wear after one too many drinks, he shouted, "I DON'T WANT TO BE A LOSER!".

This seems like quite a fitting time to end this post, as both of us are pretty tired after our long (and often bumpy journey). Tomorrow will bring another day of sightseeing, and surely another blog.

Sayonara people!

Michael

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