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9 July: Hue

We were up early heading to the railway station to buy a ticket for Dong Hoi. J & B had bought tickets the day before, but only for themselves as they were unsure whether we had already bought them. Along the way we stopped at DongA Bank and drew 8 million VND, problem was it never dispensed the cash and gave me no receipt only a malfunction message on the screen. We arrived at the station at 07h30, already there was a queue of people waiting to buy tickets, at least it wasn't too long and soon we were helped. No tickets available on hard seats and the 11h00 train was sold out. It seems that the university exams have ended and all the students are going home on the train. We would have to take the 07h00 train or wait another 2 days before departing. We bought the tickets, only soft seat with aircon were available and they cost double the hard seats.

From there we headed to a large shopping mall we had seen the day before to buy some cereal and another diary for Leanne. Halfway there the hunger hit both of us and we stopped at a roadside stall for breakfast, it was Bun Bo Hue, the noodle beef soup specialty of Hue. Once we reached the shopping mall we realized they were still in the process of completing the building. We headed back stopping along the way for a fruit shake.

Back home it was admin to do, I called Investec just to confirm the transaction didn't go through, which it didn't and spent some time downloading our video's and photo's. Having caught up with some admin we headed to the market, first looking for the third diary for Leanne. The first bookshop didn't have what she wanted, but the second one had a diary that would do, unfortunately the line spacings are always larger for the Asians, no idea why, some nice diaries look as though they were meant for a kindergarten child. From here we went further to look for lunch in the market. The first meal we tried were fresh spring rolls not the deep fried ones, second an egg pancake with vegetables and thirdly a noodle soup with some kind of meat. Everything very tasty. Wandering around a little longer we bought a peanut brittle pancake laced with honey.

Upon our return home John knocked on our door and we all headed out to Le Loi street to enjoy a beer on the perfume river side. We sat down at a restaurant where they had eaten the evening before, except instead of sitting at the table nearest to the river we sat a little further back. The reason, if you sit on the riverside itself beers cost 12 000 VND while a little further back in the restaurant they cost only 8 000 VND. We sat there for the better part of 2 hours enjoying the beer, sunset and swan peddle boats cruising the river while chatting away. They even light up the big bridge at night, very beautiful. Settling the bill we walked further to find a restaurant for supper, the restaurant right next to where we had enjoyed the beers had a sign on with prices of its meals, the prices were cheaper than any other restaurant, except the market, so we decided to look into it. We ended up ordering rice noodle dishes, fried aubergine as well as deep fried spring rolls. The dinner was divine and we all agreed that before departing for Dong Hoi we would make a stop there for breakfast. We returned home and packed our bags for the next day of travel that lay ahead to Dong Hoi before getting into bed, already almost 24h00!