Ok, so Hue was pretty dissappointingly boring. Arrived at midday on my own and checked in to a rather basic hotel and started immediately to feel sorry for myself that I was alone again. Luckily my friend Adie from Germany showed up that night and our buddy Hans from Belgium arrived the next day yipee! The next day me and Adie shunned the popular tourist bus and boat day tour and decided to go it alone so rented bikes and went on an epic 25km ride around Hue and the surrounding countryside to check out the old mosoleums of the emporers. Arrivng at the first one sweating profusely we did feel quite smug however next to the coachload of tourists that arrived at the same time. As Adie pointed out, tourists get the bus, travellers ride! haha. The ride was fantastic exercies and it felt great to be out in the fresh air using some energy up at last as i seem to spend a lot of time sitting on my ass.

When we got back, Hans had arrived so after me and Adie did rock Paper Scissors to determine who got to have the first longed for shower, we went out for some yummy dinner at an Indian Restaurant, that also randomly was half Italian. The next day we rented biked again (which after the day before hurt like hell sitting down!) and set off accross the Perfume River to explore the Citadel. We were quite dissapointed as it got heavilt bombed during the war and has not really been restored so a lot of it was quite run down with lots of scaffolding holding it up.

We left Hue that night (Saturday) on the night bus to Hanoi. Adie took a diffeent bus to go to a place called Ninh Bin so it was just me and Hans. Luckily he had his laptop so we watched a film before having possibly the worst nights sleep ever. Unlike night trains which are proper flat beds and quite comfy I have to say, night buses are another story, basically really badly designed, or at least for Asians rather than Westerners who tend to be much taller! Its impossible to have a ful nights sleep on the night bus as the driver insists on stopping every 3 hours for a fag break and toilet stop which always tend to be the grubbiest of squat toilets where you feel like you're picking up a multitude of dieases just entering them. Yuk.

So we arrived in Hanoi very sleepy still and were greeted with the usual bedlum of motorbike and taxu drivers vying for our custom,all shouting and pulling you in different directions and promising fares that they later completely change. b******s. It was during this chaos that Hans unfortunately missplaced his laptop somewhere and it has not been seen since. Poor hans.

We shared a taxi with some other Brits and arrived at Hanoi Bckpackers which had promised to be a popular hostel with friendly staff, cheap dorm rooms complete with bar and terrace for BBQ's. Well, great we thought, bring it on! It was however, crazy busy and full of the most early 20 something backpackers ive seen in the whole of Vietnam! I dont know where theyve all come from but the hostel seemed to have the complete monpoly on young backpackers in Hanoi. And at $7.5 a night it wasnt a cheap option either, but as we later found out, nowhere and nothing is cheap in this city. Anywhoo, we both decided to stay for ease although we felt a bit old for it. Its run by Aussies and basically feels like someone has plonked a huge Ozzy hostel in the middle of Asia - which is effectively wha they have done. Its too big to be that friendly and the so called ree breakfast turned out to be a bagette with a variety of manky looking 'jams' and some bananas. Fantastic. Haha im such an old moaner! But compared to other hostels and guest houses it did not compare.

Anywhoo, we met up with Briony that night which was cool then spent the next day exploring Hanoi - which was not hugely exciting. I found the place a bit of a dissappointment really, and the people to be quite unfriendly and again out to scam you as usual. Bloody Vietnamese.