We woke in Hoi An and arrived in Hue 5 hours later. Lee passed out on the bus so I was talking to a few girls who worked in Hoi An but lived in Hue. They were heading back home for their New Year Celebration. The girls were talking english to each other, i asked if that was for my benefit but it was because one of the girls was from Sapa (which is still in Vietnam) so they didn't speak the same language. This is why it is so difficult for us to learn even the most basic Vietnemese because even if they do have the same language, each place pronounces it differently.
We said good bye as we arrived in Hue and headed for our hotel. Everytime the bus drops us off they drop you off outside a hotel that they have some kind of contract with and there's always pushy taxi drivers trying to charge you stupid prices. In Hue we had a new experience. A lad saying our hotel was far away, he will get his brothers taxi and come with us because his brother doesn't speak English and won't know where to go. Lee had a map of where the hotel was and we always have the name, street and telephone number for the hotel written down so even if his 'brother' didnt speak English he should be able to read Vietnemese. This lad wanted 200,000 to drop us off... Lee pointed out it was around the corner and the lad tried to hurry us in the taxi. (Listen my friends after our coconut fiasco there is no way we're being rushed into anything!) I said why do you need to come? I have the address, if he can't read you have just said you know where it is, so tell him. There is no way it is 200,000! We want the meter on in the taxi.... 'the meter no work' right 50,000 max ok? Deal. Tut!
The people in the hotel got us a glass of water as we walked in and a yogurt and bananas and offered a cup of tea or coffee. It was a lovely friendly welcome. We went to the room and instantly was hit by the smell of damp..... It was definatley an opportunity to use my silk sleeping bag!
We went down and was greeted with a map. The lady showed us where was good to go, the tours available then offered to book our next bus for us. We decided to hire a scooter and headed for the Citidal then to the beach. We got to the Citidal and took a pic of the flag pole building which is directly opposite then of the Citidal. This used to be the Emperors palace many moons ago. I was excited for the purple forbidden city I'd read about (Apparently it's a replica of the forbidden city in China). We watched the video telling us about different doors being for different people and the people allowed in the different buildings for example only the Emperor his concubines and his eunuchs in the main building (emperor, prostitutes & guards who are missing parts to have rudeys with the prostitutes) I looked everywhere for this purple city then we bumped into a couple of people off our coach so I told them of my frustration. (I'd say to my embarrassment but it wasn't I still think its stupid) anyway It turns out not only is this city not purple but it's not even there?! It was bombed in 1 of the wars and hasn't yet been restored?! After this we left for the beach.
I was calling Lee a bore coz he was driving slow on the scooter so he bullied me into driving. I couldn't get the bike to move though. I thought the break was the clutch -it's an automatic ha So Lee was back driving (it's a lot harder than it looks and the other scooter drivers are a little erratic so I had to take my Lee mocking back) We realised we needed petrol so we drove around looking for it. We noticed that there was funny looking coke at the side of the road in the bottles so we asked and it turned out to be petrol (at a slightly higher rate than petrol stations) We filled up and carried on to the beach. We saw all different sides to Hue. A lot of it looks damp. There's damp on nearly every building. We ended up taking a wrong turn and instead of going the beach we went into the poorer areas. People had make shift houses by the river. The river in which they washed and cleaned their clothes. We headed back as the sun was setting. It was beautiful yet so different to our lives. We could see families all sitting together in their open houses and people burning things. (the burning must be a New Year thing because nearly every house was burning things outside their home). When we got back we found out that we'd have to stay in Hue a day longer than planned as the buses were shutting down for 2 days for New Year. We booked the bus for 24th, extended our stay and booked on to a tour. We hadn't paid for the tour and after we'd booked it another lady said everything was shut for new year so we weren't sure whether we were actually going on the tour in the morning at 8.... We forgot to ask when we got back in from our 1st night in Hue so, to be sensible, we didn't bother setting our alarms?!
Our tea that night was in a place called hot tuna. Mmm it was delicious. We love it when we find beautiful food.