Ok, so there's a lot for us to catch up on, here goes...we are now in Nha Trang, so will finish off the Hue blog first. Probably will tackle Hoi An later (and photos).

As I said earlier Hue was a very Imperial city, and so there were plenty of monuments to see etc. The overnight bus from Hanoi turned out to be fine (if you were a midget with short legs haha). We did have actual beds though not entirely horizontal, and were very narrow and short. the bus is massive (close to double decker size) with 3 rows going down the length of the bus each with two levels. In other words there were a whole heap of bunks. there were even TVs strategically placed around, and with good company it was all good. One interesting moment was at some ungodly hour we would awake and see a whole heap of locals lying the length of the isles of the bus. Those of us on the sleepers were pure tourists, whereas it was a bit odd seeing all these locals sleeping on the floor. aza also saw them unload stuff from the storage compartments (a bit concerning for us, he had his camera ready haha) as well as a fair bit of cash being exchanged between them...A few hours later and the bus was empty again.

Anyways, am meant to be writing about hue, not the bus! On arrival at 8am sat morning (so it was a 14hour journey afterall) we were dumped at a hotel and decided to stay there. In the rain we weren't too keen to walk around to find anything else. We managed to haggle the price of room down from 15 to 10 including a buffet breakfast. So feeling pretty stoked for ourselves we set out exploring...only to be pounced upon by the 'easy riders'. The way they work is by shoving a little notebook under your heads which is usually filled with (good) comments about about their previous customers who have taken the rides. This was the first time we had come across this method and easily fell for it (since then we have been accosted a trillion times with the same scheme)...

After a bit of convincing we set off on the bikes which was all good fun. We managed to see heaps including mausoleums, lots of pagodas, temples and even american bunkers. See pics.

In between our guide Hieu took us to very cheap eateries which was great. The downside was Hieu and his partner were continually trying to sell us their trip from Hue to Hoi An, as well as occasionally taking us to tacky tourist places selling tacky touristy things making us feel somewhat obliged to buy from their apparent friends (which we didn't, though still felt in a vulnerable position considering we were in the middle of nowhere and the only means of transport was their bikes...added to which they could have driven us anywhere haha...). After showing us the numerous pictures of the same tour, then constantly dropping their price from 50down to 35 we eventually agreed. This time i was trying to convince Aza! Admittedly we had had good fun that day and these guides were good company so we were quite excited...Taking their tour meant only spending one night in Hue as well as cutting out a stay in Danang (the next planned stop, although we still passed through it). We had also already booked our bus tickets though luckily managed to get refunded.

Next morning to our relief the rain had stopped and the sun was out (occasionally)! We set off on the bikes at 8.30am and cruising at an average speed of 50kph it was a great way to see things better. Every so often we would pull over and stop at places such as little fishing villages, or graveyards dedicated to those lost during the American War. Pretty sad to see as so many locals were lost, many under the age of 25...Then things started getting a little dodgy. Aza's bike started making odd sounds only for then for ot to get a flat tyre. Luckily we didn't loose too much time as it happened over the lunch hour so Aza and I sat down to eat whilst the couple went to find a local garage. They claimed they replaced the tyre with a brand new one which was a visible lie haha. Then about 20mins back on the road whilst climbing a hill Aza's bike started stopping altogether. After the 3rd time it refused to turn back on at all. So for over an hour we were stuck at the top of a pass covered in fog, being harassed by a mob of locals trying to sell us things we didn't want...in addition to not knowing whether we would make it to Hoi An at all. They did manage to get the bike going again although after this the men were in a pretty foul mood as they clearly had spent more on this trip than they bargained for...later that night they had the cheek to ask us for some more money to pay for the repairs...haha good one.

Regardless we DID eventually make it to Hoi An round 5pm as it was getting dark. We did manage to see a couple of other cool places such as the elephant springs (would be awesome in summer, though when we saw it, the monsoon rains had turned the springs into a raging waterfall - certainly not safe for swimming yet we still paid the full admission fee haha). We also saw the the marble mountains (literally a mountain which the locals have used to create a whole heap of marble creations, leaving massive caves inside these 'mountains' which were quite cool to explore). Despite being recognised a national site of significance, the place was absolute trashed with rubbish everywhere as well as graffiti all over the marble. a real shame to see. Added to which when we started exploring the caves a local lady was walking on her way out and offered us the use of her torch. We thought this generous, only to walk back out ourselves with her demanding for money. Very cheeky.

The last couple of hours the rain started pouring again so we were quite happy to make it to the hotel room! We were absolutely knackered and ended up staying in the hotel which Hieu took us to (clearly one of his friends, although fine at $10 a night). He then offered to take us to meet his sister who happened to be a tailor in Hoi An. We thought sure why not, only to arrive and be accosted by a whole heap of girls demanding that we make a choices there and then and started trying to take our measurements before we had even agreed to get anything made. Bare in mind that Hoi An is the tailor capital of Vietnam if not SE Asia and the tiny town has somewhere between 300-500 separate tailor shops with very competitive prices. After insisting to Hieu that we weren't ready to make any decisions we asked him to recommend us a local restaurant.

This was a bad move...We had just paid Hieu and clearly he was unimpressed that we hadn't given him a tip. We didn't feel inclined to given the complications during the day. This was when he asked for money for repairs to which we refused....He then took us to the local joint which had no advertised prices. When produced with the bill it was 3 times the price than expected - we would have paid far less in an actual restaurant, not an actual street side stall. Added to which Hieu blindly refused to pay his share. but what could we do...in a local joint where we couldn't commicate with anyone it was easier to swallow your pride and get out. If anything we felt intimidated....Left with a sour taste in our mouths we said goodbye to Hieu and headed to bed. We even felt a bit uneasy staying in the recommended hotel as every seemed to know everyone in the town and we wanted to regain a sense of control over our decisions...

So that was the end of the biking adventure! Not initially as planned. In hindsight was still good fun, although a real shame to see just how much money dominates peoples minds and how you really need to watch out for yourself...if you can! And we have no doubt that these men weren't 'easy riders' either; nonetheless having the label doesn't make you any better...