Heading down to central Vietnam- HUE

After an ok nights sleep on the rattling sleeper train, we arrived in Hue. The weather was horrible!! It was really wet, pouring down with rain which made Hue look not so pretty however it was an amazing place for some more Vietnamese history. We checked in to the backpackers hostel which cost us $6 a night with breakfast... Bargain. We had a dorm room with 8 other girls which was fun plus a good opportunity to meet new friends & find out about the south of Vietnam.

We headed out for a nosey around the local shops and treated ourselves to some new 'travellers' trousers, the trend with backpackers so of course we had to join in! Plus they are so comfortable, it's like wearing your pj's all the time!

That evening we went out for local food at a place called Hue's specials, or something along that line, with Lynn, a girl we had met in our hostel who was from Colorado. She was fun plus very interesting to talk to! I was telling her stories of camp & she was telling us about where she lived, how cool & beautiful it was & her job as a Archeologist for the government! A pretty awesome comparison to the delights of Darwen!

The small cafe/restaurant was your typical vietnamese standard, maybe a little more appealing than places in Hanoi... Well that was until our hot lemon waters arrived with floating flies in! As we had already ordered food, we had to suck it up, reorder bottled beer and tuck into the rice paper wraps, meat, vegetables @ peanut dip. It wasn't too bad but it was safe to say we wouldn't be returning there in a hurry!

Lynn left the next day for Hoi An so we agreed to meet up when we arrived there the next day. As people left, more arrived & we met Manu, a girl who was travelling alone from Germany so she headed to explore the city of Hue with us. We headed to The Citadel, which was built in 1804 & is known as one of Vietnam's treasures. The Citadel is an imperial city on the northern bank of the Perfume River built inside of a moat & huge, protecting walls. You can sense how historic the place is instantly as you pass through the dark tunnel road built into the walls. We first came across a group of giant cannons that were used to protect the city during the war. They were pretty cool to see.

Inside of the Citadel, we visited the Imperial Enclosure, which was another citadel inside The Citadel surrounded by another moat and 6 metre high walls. This was used by the former emperors to carry out their official functions and contained a surreal array of deserted gardens, temples, the Forbidden Purple City, ceremonial halls and palaces. We had a good few hours exploring the area and then gave in to the wet rainy weather.

After drying off, we headed to buy a hop on, hop off bus ticket from Hue to Hoi An, Hoi An to Nha Trang, Nha Trang to Mui Ne and then to finish off in Ho Chi Minh city. It only cost us a total of £15 which was a bargain!!! We booked out bus to leave the next morning, Hue was was too wet to stay for another day! En route back to the hostel, we stopped at a little side cafe that supported dead people by giving them jobs. All of the staff we deaf and making little items to sell such as rings, picture frames, necklaces and random items out of coca cola cans. It was pretty cool. We stopped in for herbal flowering tea and bought a few products. I also learnt that every single language has it's own sign language. It's something I've never really thought about before!

After food at a French restaurant, we packed our stuff ready to leave at 8am.

Next stop was Hoi An...