Greetings from Hue!!
We arrived in Hue around 7am after our 12 hour sleeper bus. It went pretty well, it was different to the Thailand buses, they had actual beds. So a lot more comfortable. We would have got a better night sleep if we were not right above the engine, it was rather hot. The guy sleeping next to Shay also seemed to take up his bed and half of hers so it wasn't the best nights sleep.

We got two taxi guys to take us to our hostel, they had motorbikes so strapped our backpack onto the bike then we jumped on. Didn't look very safe but we got there in one piece.

After checking into our dorm, we decided to get a few hours kip before exploring the city. When we woke, we decided to take a walk around and get our bearings. Well, we managed to walk about 500metres before we decided it was far too hot. We noticed on our map there was a swimming pool nearby so we decided to spend the day there.

Arriving at the swimming pool there must have been a hundred Vietnamese kids waiting to get in, we were the only westerners and sticking out like a sore thumb. But, it was so hot we were desperate for a swim. Once we got into the pool we realised it was segregated, so boys at one side and girls at the other. We had to swim to the rope in the middle to talk to each other haha. Also all Vietnamese girls were pretty much covered shoulders to feet, not showing any flesh at all. Shay didn't really fancy just wearing her bikini and getting looks from everyone so she had to go in with her clothes on top of her bikini lol. It wasn't the most successful swim. We left after 20 minutes.

On our walk home we stopped at a bar type place that had heaps of pool tables so we decided to have a few games. When the guy showed us to our table we noticed that the pool table didn't have any pockets and they were only playing with 4 balls......not sure what type of pool that was. We eventually got a pool table we were familiar with and stayed there for an hour or so.

That night we met up with Justin and Tom (guys from Halong Bay) for a couple of drinks and we told them about our "Swimming Experience" haha. They were heading home the following day so it was nice to have a couple drinks with them.

The following morning we got up early and set off to see the sights of Hue. A couple of guys with their motorbikes offered to take us to all the sights for the whole day for only $6, so we decided to go with them. We ended up doing so much and seeing a lot more than we would have ourselves. First off we went to the the Citadel. Which is what the town of Hue used to be like, surrounded by walls to protect the town. It was good to see but most of it in ruins, from what we assume is from all the bombing.

We then got taken to see a Pagoda that sits right on the river front, the views of the river from here were really nice. Then, we got taken to see some of the bomb shelters used during the war. The views from here were incredible.
Hung and Row (our drivers) then took us to see Tum Duc Tomb. This was quite impressive, a lot bigger than either of us expected. We walked around for a while, again it was just so hot. Luckily there are Vietnamese ladies selling water everywhere.

We then set off to a nearby museum. There was an older Vietnamese lady here that showed us all the equipment they used for harvesting the rice fields. She was so sweet, we tipped her 10,000Dong (30p) and she was delighted.
Hung and Row then explained to us that they did longer trips as well, from city to city. So we decided to book them for the following day to take us to Hoi An. It would be a whole day journey on the bikes, but they were going to stop at lots of sights along the way. Its known as the "Top Gear" experience. Its the same route they did on the episode they were in Vietnam.

Hue is a really nice city, similar to Hanoi but less busy and the traffic is nowhere near as bad. Just gets tiring when you are walking around the city and you have Vietnamese people saying "Hello, you buy, you look, you buy" haha. But we are getting used to it.

J+B