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Published: July 25th 2015
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Day 6
Arrived in Hue
at 9.30amafter 12 hours on the sleeper bus. It was fine I slept well. We only had a 10 min walk to our hotel. We stopped for breakfast first though. Bread and omelette. A Vietnamese girl came over and asked if we were English; could she practice her English with us. So we enjoyed our breakfast talking to each other. Lesley showed her granddaughter photos ( which are so lovely). The girl was 12 and spoke English very well. She wanted to try to understand our accent, which was a push for 'Ull!.
The welcome at the hotel was friendly, as always. We were greeted with a cold drink and fruit. The room is good too. A shower and change and then out to see what Hue had to offer. We'd heard about the palace and decided to walk there. However it was a long way so we decided to jump in a rickshaw again. Trouble is it was a small one and meant for one but we insisted on us both going! Lesley squeezed in between my legs. Oh dear we nearly killed the guy! At one point going up a hill he was
grunting and moaning we thought he was going to have a heart attack! It was so funny. He didn't take us to the palace he took us to the market but we didn't have the heart to ask him to carry on.
We decided to have a look around. The market was huge. Everything you could want. A lady decided to be our guide. She took us upstairs where it was indescribable. So many stalls but so small all cramped in. I did my first bartering for a pendant. I walked off and they came chasing after me and I got the price I wanted. We stopped for an iced tea at a market cafe. The lady loved us and wanted her photo taken with us and we obliged.
We then took a walk to the palace but when we got there it was the exit we went to and it closing in an hour. A guy "Mr Hue" approached us and asked to take us on a tour of the old town. We agreed a price and again sat on a small rickshaw this time Lesley sat at the back as she can do the splits so
she had her legs spread eagle hanging over the side! The guide took us to temples and explained the history and the difference between the male and female temples. We couldn't go in as they were closed but they were beautiful. Much of the architecture of the houses, public gardens and temples in Hue are very Chinese influence whereas in Hanoi it was more French with shuttered windows etc. Mr Hue then took us to the city wall that goes 9 km around the old city. They are not allowed to build more than 11 metres high in the old town. Outside the city wall is high rise hotels etc. he took us to what used to be a war turret on top of the wall but had now been made into a view point. The views were amazing. You could see all across the old town and into the mountains. We also visited the house that Ho Chi Min lived in as a child. We parted company with Mr Hue near the Perfume river. He had been great. We'd seen things we wouldn't normally have seen as a tourist.
We sat by the river watching the boats and
people drinking iced tea. As it became dark the bridge lit up with different colours. We walked along a promenade with shops and artists. Then happened upon a beautiful restaurant lit up shaped like a lotus flower. We decided to eat there and sat on the roof terrace. The meals were lovely, I tried my first seafood. We reflected on the day. We would have liked to have gone on a river boat trip but our phones were dying and we had to use Google maps to get back to the hotel. On the road home we met a little family of rats scurrying along the path. Back safely, early night as catching the bus to Hoi An
at 8am tomorrow.
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Richard
non-member comment
Becoming a local!
Looks like your trip is getting better and better - but try not to kill a rickshaw driver...!