We arrived in Hue in the early morning after a 13 hour coach journey in which one guy was sick just a row behind us. Luckily for us it was covered up and he moved forward in the bus. The girls arrived about 10 minutes before us in their sleeper bus and Phil and John arrived not long after us. We found a hostel to stay in, the owner not speaking a word of English. We got settled in and had a short wonder. The girls were in a nearby hotel and we spent some time with them and Phil and John. The beach was 15km away so we decided to hire mopeds. We decided to do it before telling you all at home because I think we would know the response we would get! We were going to do it in Laos but never got around to it, and had said to Will we wouldn't get mopeds in Vietnam because of the crazy roads, but they weren't as bad in Hue as in Hanoi. We shared 4 mopeds between 7 of us. Lorna had driven mopeds before, and was giving her bike a test when the foot brake didn't work so grabbed the brake on the handlebar and twisted the accelerator at the same time, sending her flying into 2 parked mopeds, her foot getting caught in the spinning back wheel. She hobbled away from it and managed to get to the beach. Will was going to drive our one first, I hopped on the back and immediately, the bike wobbled, did a bit of a wheelie and we were both on the floor with nothing but a few scratches. Not exactly a good start and didn't help my confidence, but Will had another go and looked fine, so I got back on and there were no more incidents for us. Still, I can say Will threw me off the back of a moped. Fi wasn't feeling well to begin with and half way there got Phil to take her back. We spent a while at the very nice beach but littered with beach sellers who just wouldn't leave you alone. We headed back and found the doctor had been called for Fi, she wasn't well and was prescribed a load of drugs, Lorna also had her foot checked and an X-ray the next day confirmed she had broken her right phalange, she is in a cast for the next 3 weeks. Will hadn't been feeling well either, and the next morning got the doctor called out again, he had tonsilitis and was given a load of drugs too. The unwell spent the next few days watching TV while the rest of us did bits and pieces around the town while checking on them etc. I had a walk around the Imperial City one evening and stopped to eat at a small restaurant that said it was in the Lonely Planet which I didn't believe but found out later it was. It was very nice and I tried some Hue speciality dishes. When Will was feeling a bit better we went to the Forbidden City and had a walk around. It was interesting to see some of the old architecture and buildings and the bits that had survived centuries of war and storms. The next day, Phil, John, Nicky, Vicky and I went on a DMZ tour which took the whole day. It was a long day and we didn't stop long at each site but already knowing a bit about each site it was interesting to see them in person. By far the best bit was visiting the Vinh Moc tunnels where around 300 civilians lived underground to protect themselves from American artillery and bombing. The next morning we headed down to Hoi An, the girls had gone the day before and Phil and John would come a day later because John was ill as well. All in all, Hue was the place for everyone to get sick. So far, me, Phil and Nicky are the only ones not to have come down with anything major (touch wood).