We arrived into Hue at 9am and stumbled off our sleeper bus into a crowd of people offering us taxi rides, motorbike rides and cyclo rides to our hotel, which of course was miles and miles away and we couldn't possibly walk. It actually turned out to be just around the corner and so after escaping the hassle of the locals we grabbed our bags and set off down the street. A couple of guys on motorbikes insisted on following us the whole way and kept repeating "very far!"

Valentine hostel was very welcoming and run by a couple called Thai and Ruby who couldn't have been more helpful. Thai's brother was also very friendly and amusing….he insisted we try his father's special homemade medicinal wine (it was bright yellow and as strong as tequila).

We were pleased to find that Hue offers a lot of choice when it comes to food and we wasted no time getting out to the local bars for bagettes and pizzas. The local street food was also very good with dishes of noodles and beef served up with fresh herbs and quails eggs. The local "DMZ Bar" showed live football and had a pool tournament which Ben won.

We spent a couple of days exploring Hue by bike and visited the main central attractions located on the perfume river; the Citadel and Pagoda. Both were a good few km away and we enjoyed cycling along the busy roads and taking in the scenery of the locals with their cattle or sailing on little boats up and down the river. The Citadel was a large square wall enclosing the "Imperial City and Purple Forbidden City", which is an ancient ruin of what used to be a fortress and Palace when Hue was the Capital.

On our 3rd day we went on a trip to the demilitarization zone (DMZ), the border dividing north and south during the Vietnam War. It was an extremely hot day and we spent a lot of time sweltering in the bus as we were ferried from one location to another (museums and army bases). On the coast of the DMZ we visited the Vinh Moc tunnels, a small part of the extensive network of tunnels where locals lived during bombings throughout the War. We got to go inside and walk through tiny passageways underground, which went as deep as 23m in places. We were told that at times families had to spend up to 5 whole days and nights shut in the tunnels, 20 minutes was more than enough for us!

From Hue we were glad to find that our next destination, Hoi An, was only 4 hours away by bus and so no sleepless night on a bumpy bus was required. We set off early for Hoi An, pleased that we were heading for the coast and our first beach!!