A little out of order ...

Day 18: Friday 4th March (By AJ).

Hue

We had a 4 hour bus journey to Hue this morning, through amazing mountain scenery - although the road was ridiculously windy! Got a bit of a shock with the cold weather when we arrived so it was jumpers on! We had a walk around the 'Forbidden City' (the Palace) and the grounds, which was huge and great for hide and seek! Also saw some elephants, but they were chained up and we think they were used for elephant rides :(.
The back packers strip behind our guest house was great and so we had 'buy one, get one free' mojitos at the backpackers hostel (which had a mental happy hour - for 3 hours! - and involved a lot of shouting! We then ended up on a spontaneous night out and I ended up with the DJ's head set on pulling out the standard crazy moves ... good times! :)

Day 19: Saturday 5th March (By AJ).

Hue and an overnight train to Hanoi.

Went on a group motorbike tour this morning, started off in the mizzle and then had pouring rain! We all had to wear huge ponchos with hoods and then our helmets, which looked hilarious! We drove through the countryside and rice fields along very narrow dirt tracks and then stopped off at a market with a historic bridge (Can't remember the name though!). We saw temples and also crossed a little bamboo bridge - on foot- across to the rice fields which was very wobbly!! I think the drivers found it very amusing! We also stopped off for a demonstration of the hat making and met our legend of a tour guide. Back on the bikes, our guide then took us to the Kings Tomb, which looked just like the giant chess board out of Harry Potter!
We then drove up through the forest to the most amazing view of the river and valley from the top - and finally some sun! It was a great tour around Hue's countryside! We then boarded our train for the 12 hour journey to Hanoi, the journey involved a lot of cards and games. We arrived early in the morning and then slept for the 4 hour bus journey to Halong Bay.