So after establishing we had reached Hue we got out our trusty rough guide and headed to find a hostel (this time we decided not to stay where the coach dropped us off). We found a cute hotel for $8 a night - it was absolutely perfect - nice room, two beds, aircon HOWEVER we had a few extra roomies....Jimmy and Debbie Cockroach! We did not become the best of friends - everytime we entered our room we would pop our head round the door - in most occasions they were in the bathroom so we just kept the door closed hoping it would keep them at bay. We quickly left the room and headed out for tea. We found a really small cute restaurant on a back street, food was lovely and so was the waitress. She stood talking to us for an hour - she was studying english at uni and wanted to know all about our country and practice talking - she told us places we should go etc so it was a good meal.

We then headed to the DMZ bar - one Andy had told us we had to visit. It was really cool, grafiti all over the walls, furniture. Was fun reading everyones comments and opinions on Vietnam. As we were playing pool we got chatting to some guys, Irish again, and they told us about a more musical venue called Brown Eyes so we got cyclos there and had a late night - it was real fun. There were several Scottish flags in the bar which excited us a little bit - and when the dj realised we were Scottish he said he would play us a Scottish song - we were really excited and expecting Proclaimers but he played Amy McDonald! bless!

We got up at 11am then next morning feeling a little worse for wear. We didnt sleep well due to builders on the roof of the hotel next door although they might aswell of been on our roof with the amount of noise they were making! We decided to hire bicycles even though it was raining a little. So off we set with rain jackets over our rucksacks (looking good as you can imagine) and as we got half way around the block the heavens opened - by this point we were already soaking so we decided to continue. We rode along many streets around the citadel but didnt venture in anywhere as the wether was not nice.

Due to lack of sleep and tiredness from cycling we had a nap in late afternoon, we woke up we headed out and HELLO MONSOON SEASON, we no longer had a road outside ouir hotel but now a small river! it was soooo funny, the river was ankle height and flowing so we just ventured to the restaurant accross the road. We headed to the Why Not Bar and had a few game of dominos before heading home, because as you can imagine the town was rather quiet that evening!

Tuesday 7th we had a an early start as we had booked to go on a dragon boat trip up the Perfume River. The boat firstly drove through a small fishing villiage - people here looked incredibly poor living off of tiny little boats/floating houses. Second stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda ehich was kinda cool as it was the first real pagoda we had seen - it had 7 floors and you got a nice view of river from where it was situated. We headed up the river to the Tu Doc Tomb which we decided not to go in as others on the trip were better so instead we got a moto through the conical hat making and incense making villiage and grabbed a drink on a street cafe with a few other people from our trip. We had lunch on the boat and then the last stop was the Minh May tomb which was located in beautiful gardens. This was the oldest and largest tomb in Hue and the king that was resting here had 143 children!

On returning we had tea and on heading back to hotel we found Jimmy and Debbie had returned. We needed the loo and didnt wana go with Debs an Jim watching so we headed out for a few drinkies and then packed it in for the night.

Next day we hired bikes again, and this time the sun was shining. We cycled back around the citadel and this time we entered and took photos. We then had to hang around town waiting for our night bus to leave again for Hanoi.

Everything with Hue was great, we had a fab few days, next stop Hanoi - the bus journey was fine except a couple of hours in the bus stop and some locals got on with a little old lady who ended up sleeping below Mel - she was very frail, and coughed and slputtered - we thought she was going to die :s lucky when we woke in the morning she was still alive :) We arrivewd in Hanoi in 7am but had decided to go straight on a tour to Halong Bay so we had to wait in office for bus to pick us up and then we were on our way.

Hope life isnt too boring at home! xxxx