Hue and Hoi An

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Leaving the airport in Hue agreed a price with a taxi driver for him to then get pulled over leaving the airport by security to check his paperwork ended up sitting in the taxi for 15 minutes waiting so when he got back in the car i gave him a new price and said it was a waiting fee he didn't argue. The hostel i arrived at was very nice and friendly the girl that greeted me even carried my case up the stairs saying she had muscles. Once i was settled in i went for a nice walk down the river to soak up the sunshine its amazing what difference a bit of sunlight can do to your mood. I found a nice little spot along the river to sit and watch the world go by and there was some kind of school trip going on i had fun laughing at them doing crazy poses for the camera jumping off a nearby wall. Walking back along the front i seen a band playing outside a hotel which was pretty cool and then found a little tourist shop and booked a city tour and my bus to the next place for pretty cheap, successful afternoon. I stopped for dinner at a nice little restaurant and had shrimp and pork noodles before heading back and going to bed. That was of course after chasing a few mosquitos around the room.

My city tour picked me up bright and early first we went to the citadel which is other wise known as the purple forbidden palace it is on a slightly smaller scale than the forbidden palace in Beijing but is also in various stages of reconstruction we were shown a single wall standing in the centre of the grounds that is one of the only original features left of the structure and the guide explained further plans for reconstruction but they are apparently awaiting funding from America. They may be waiting a while. After that we headed to one of the private houses of a previous princess as when they reached a certain age they were apparently given their independence and own living quarters in the city which is nice the building was not overly sized but had huge gardens surrounding it and was beautifully decorated.

We then began visiting the tombs of the fallen kings there were three in total but i only went inside two of them as the sun was scorching and by the third id had my fill. The first tomb was that of Minh Mang and we were told that it was previously his home and when he was brought to his burial the gates were closed and have not been open since. The gardens were vast and there was even a lake incorporated in to it all very beautiful and fit for a king. The second tomb we visited was Kahi Dinh i found this one to be the most interesting architecturally as the buildings and pagoda in the courtyard were all beautifully designed there was quite a few steps at this tomb but it was worth it for the view from the top and inside the main building there were many golden carvings and amazing artwork covering the walls. We finished the day by sailing down the river on a. Dragon boat we wanted to it on the front to catch the last of the sun but got shouted at so had to move inside.

Next day was another early start to head to Hoi An our bus made a few stops along the way so we got see the over mountain pass and the marble mountains along the way which was perfect short little stops there were American army bunkers at the top of the mountain from back when they had control of the capital of Hue before it was moved to Hanoi.



Hoi An was probably one of my favourite places so far so relaxed and the hostel had lots to do and was also connected to a sister hostel 5 minutes walk away so we could join in with their activities as well. My first night there was a street food walking tour so i got to try a few things but the best was the Ban Mi which is a kind of baguette but it was amazing and i practically lived off them fro the rest of my stay there the shop was called the Ban Mi queen and i have to agree she is the queen of the baguettes. The hostel did free beer on one night and free run and coke on another so that was pretty cool and then if you went to the sister hostel straight after you could get the opposite free drink on each night so pretty much free alcohol for most of the night and then happy hour drinks for about 70p for the rest of the night fair to say i took advantage. I spent one day at the beach and kicked around golden sand, we went to a nice quiet area of beach were there were not many people. The water was nice and cold and it felt great after sitting in the heat for so long. I even braved a motorbike ride back to the hostel a very nice German guy gave me a ride and i must have had the look of horror on my face because a lady on the bike next to us was very obviously laughing at me oh well id rather be nervous than careless so many accidents on those things out here.

On my last night i went out to a bar after the happy hours in the hostel and met a really random but fun group of people and chatted with them until the early hours. You could say my stay here was perfect until the last night when i realised id had a run in with bed bugs and the bites were starting to show up as apparently they can take a few days to flare up. So as you can imagine not overly happy the hostel cleaned my case and all of my clothes which is helpful although i'm still covered in bites and they are still showing up a few more days later so looking a bit like a dot to dot now.

I left in a shuttle bus to go to the airport and after about 5 minutes i shouted stop ive left something in the hostel, i had left my battery power pack on charge behind reception so he had to drive back oops i could leave without it as its also the charger for my camera. Things only got better when i arrived at the airport to find out my 22:25 flight had been moved to 5pm and nobody had contacted me luckily they had another flight that was delayed by an hour so they put me on that one what a cock up they would have been screwed had that flight already left. So off a flew from De Nang to Ho Chi Minh for the last leg of my Vietnam journey.

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