Day Forty One

Hanoi to Hue

Not such an early start an early start at all. We strolled down stairs for breakfast only to be greeted by Ana who was already up & at it. She had already had breakfast & checked out the room. We ate breakfast & told Ana that we where going to our room to chill out, sort our bags out & relax until it was checking out time. With all our things sorted & room bill settled we also finalised our bus tickets & told them exactly the places we wanted to stop. The lady gave us the bus ticket recipet & said that the bus company would be along to pick us up around 7pm for our overnight journey to Hue.

We needed to look around Hanoi for a new camera but where shall we start. There isn't exactly the shops you need for them sort of items. We had been advised that there was a few shops which sold cameras just a few streets away from the hostel & we had been told that there was a big camera shop there too. Ana wanted to come along to look with us too so off we went walking around the streets of Hanoi camera shopping. There was a few shops but all the prices of the camera were ridiculous. With everything being imported they charge through the roof for items. I had found the same camera as my damaged one but I was certianly not willing to pay the price for it & there was seriously no haggling with it.

We went back & forth to a few camera shops but I just couldn't make my mind up & thats when we found the big camera shop so we went inside. This camera shop looked like it actually sold the real genuine products but I was still torn what to pick. I ended buying a sony cybershot which isn't very good in comparison to my last camera & I had to pay three times the price but I just needed some sort of a camera.

From the camera shop Ana had asked us if we could accompany her to the crazy street with all the shops that we had walked down the other day when we headed back from our busy day at the pagoda & musuem. We agreed & off we marched through the bustling end of town. We stopped every 20 seconds so Ana could take pictures so we ended up getting squashed on the pavement between people who where on the street trying to make a living & bloody motorbikes. As it was getting late we agreed to not walk much further as it would take a while for us to get back. Just as we where about to turn back we spotted an aquarium where you could buy little fish so we decided that we would buy a little gold fish for the hostel so it could accompy the one & only fish in the tiny fish tank which was in the hostels reception area.

With the fish bought we decided to head back but we walked on the opposite side of the street this time. Not very far from where we bought the fish we came across a street barber & Andy had been saying for a while now that he needed his hair cut so I pleaded with him to let a street barber cut his hair whilst me & Ana took pictures. Andy sat in his little barbers chair in the middle of the street for all to see getting his wig chopped. The barbers little stall had a mirror that hung on the wall in the street & his clippers went in to some random plug which was in a hole in the wall on the street. We had not seen anything like it & Andy had not experienced anything like it as because as soon as the barber had finished Andy looked like he had a typical Vietnamese soliders hair cut....hahaha, but at least it was a good cut!

We quickly headed back towards the hostel, Andy not too satisfied by his new look but what do you want for a £1. We needed to go to the supermarket in order to get some supplies for our long 14 hour bus journey to Hue. In the supermarket we grabbed some crisps, biscuits & water, that should do us for over night. Back in the hostel we had yet more cups of tea & a few bananas whilst we waited to be collected to be taken to the bigger bus.

Finally nearer 8pm a man came in to the hostel to collect us so we hauled our big bags on our back & off we went outisde to a little mini bus. Our bags where loaded on but the minibus was already full of people so how was we meant to fit on? We got shoved on the bus & we had to crouch & stand whilst it whizzed through the streets to the bus companys office. We all piled off the minibus & there were a few sleeper buses parked outside. I got ushered in to the office where I collected our three tickets & we had to load our things on to the bigger sleeper bus. Me & Andy had experienced these buses in China & we were not really looking forward to the journey.

Everything loaded on we claimed spaces at the back of the bus. The back of the bus is the bumpiest but it by far the most roomy so we settled down in to our small tiny beds & awaited for the bus to pull away. Whoop whoop the bus was finally on the move & we were off to Hue. We sat looking out of the window for a while as the bus drove down the motorway & then through lots of villages. There was also a couple lying next to Ana on the back & luckily for Ana they too were also Argentinian so at least she could speak to them easily & have normal conversation instead of her trying to always understand what me & Andy were saying as her English is great but her understanding of our accent isn't so great.

We needed to get some sleep on this bus as we arrive early tomorrow & there isn't time for sleeping around the hotel as we are only spending one night in Hue so we best had make the most of it. I wonder what Hue is going to be like? We'll see tomorrow............