Day 61 (Tuesday 5th Feb 08)

After a very sleepless night and a disgusting toilet on our bouncy journey to Hue we arrived at about 7am very tired, where we got dropped from the bus there were people hanging around wanting to take us to their hotels. We went with one of them in a minibus to his hotel. Apparently there were no rooms available yet so they said we should have breakfast. As soon as we had finished our breakfast a room was suddenly available! Went to have a look at a room that he would give us for $20 a night. Knowing this was too much we said we wanted something cheaper. Trying his luck knowing we were tired after a long journey he said that there would be no other rooms available until about 12noon. Em having already caught onto what he was doing so said that was fine we would wait. Suddenly there was actually another room ready. We managed to get this for $10 a night so we were happy with that. Checked in and took our bags upstairs and got a couple of hours sleep. Got up had a shower and decided to go out for a bit of an explore after having some cheap lunch at the hotel. Wandered around Hue trying to get our bearings and walked along the river. Got offered a boat tour for the next day so decided to go back tomorrow early. Walked back to the area where there some places to eat and drink and sat down and had a beer. Then decided to go and find a place called Little Italy that was in the Lonely Planet as Mark fancied a pizza. After a good pizza and another beer we made our way back to the hotel in the rain.

Day 62 (Wednesday 6th Feb 08)

Got up early and had some breakfast. We were about to make our way down to the river in the rain to go and visit the attractions by boat trip but the guy at the hotel said that as it was their New Years Day over here tomorrow entry to all of the places would be free tomorrow. We had been hoping to be able to leave tomorrow to go to Hoi An but he rang the bus company to book our tickets and they had no buses going until Saturday so we had to wait until then. Therefore decided to save ourselves the money and save getting soaked today and go tomorrow. Looked on the internet for some of the flights we needed to book and then went to the Vietnam Airlines office down the road. They had a cheap flight from Da Nang to Nha Trang so we decided to book that. We left the others as not sure if we will do some of the borders by land or not. Went back to the hotel and read our books for a bit. Later went out for something to eat. Found a nice place back from the road. Nice and chilled out with a guy playing the guitar and had a good cheap meal and some beer! Went back to the hotel.

Day 63 (Thursday 7th Feb 08)

Got up early, had some breakfast and made our way down to the river to find a boat. Managed to get a boat for D200,000 for the 2 of us. Very interesting as the boats are their homes. We went through some beautiful scenery. As we were going along towards our first stop the woman on board bought out all the souvenirs for sale. There were lots of nice things to buy but we had to remember that we had to be able to carry it in ours bags so we just bought some small things. Eventually got dropped off on the side of the river for the first of the tombs and a temple. Made our way up the river bank and were then told we would have to get on the back of motorbikes to get to the tomb and temple as it was too far to walk. We were definitely not sure on the idea of getting headlice from the helmets at the least. We hung around for a bit trying to decide what to do saying we would much rather walk but them saying we couldn't. Another group of 3 came up from another boat and did also not like the idea so we all tried to figure out what to do. In the end we all just left, went back to the boats and moved onto the next place. We then stopped at a temple took some pictures and got taken to the Tomb of Minh Mang which was very impressive. Had a walk around and got some good pictures and headed back to the boat. We were then taken to the Thien Mu Pagoda which was up some steep steps and again was very impressive. Lots of young monks around and some amazing scenery. To end the tour we were dropped at the Old Citadel so we could have a look, we went into the Imperial City and then headed back towards where we were staying stopping at a nice little cafe on the way for something to eat.

Day 64 (Friday 8th Feb 08)

Had a lie in today and read our books. Got up late and went down for something to eat. Then walked along to near the river where we had seen somewhere we could burn our photos to DVD to back them up as we were running out of memory card space. Burnt the photos to DVD with the Vietnamese very interested in our photos! Then made our way back to the hotel to use the very very very slow internet to update our blog!! Decided to go out to find something to eat and soon found out that it wasn't going to be as easy as we thought as most places were closed for tet. Eventually found a place called Why Not? which was also written up in the Lonely Planet. Had a very disappointing meal with mostly burnt food so wasn't great! Walked back to the hotel.