We've spent two nights in Hue, breaking up our journey on the way up to Hanoi. After arriving at lunchtime yesterday, we spent the afternoon wandering around the town, diving in and out of cafes as we went trying to avoid the sweltering heat. That evening we enjoyed a meal and managed to catch the Burnley game, it was nice to see a win for a change, every game we've managed to watch live so far they've lost.

Today we got up early as we wanted to walk to the other side of the river to the citadel, before it got too hot. The citadel is built on the river and it's where most of Hue's population live. Once inside, we were free to explore the grounds and we soon found that it is slowly being turned into a building site as the buildings inside the citadel are currently being restored after the damage inflicted during the American war. We took a few photos and decided on the way back to town we would stop off for a drink as it was now getting very hot. The first cafe we went into practically ignored us, so we went to another who tried to hugely overcharge us. Third time lucky (we were thinking), we sat down in a locals cafe, just wanting to grab of Coke, Tom attempted to turn on the fan. Before we knew it we were being told to leave (in Vietnamese) by some old woman, just racism really. Now feeling disappointed, and getting fairly annoyed with the series of the events we walked back and decided to stick to our side of the river for the rest of the day.

Before arriving in Vietnam we'd been advised by numerous people those from the north can be rude. We arrived with an open mind but unfortunately (not everyone agrees) but it seems true, from being pushed out of cafés, ripped off, pushed around, and generally not being made to feel welcome as soon as you step out of the tourist areas.

That evening we went out for a few drinks and found ourselves in the local night club. It was great, all the "cool" Vietnamese teenagers were crammed into this tiny bar, watching the United vs City game. They all looked like Alex's mates, with design T-shirts, without a smile among them, too cool for school! It was just what we needed after a few days of bad experiences.

Tomorrow we're hanging around the whole day ready for the joys of a night bus to Hanoi.