Hoi An & Hue 10/4/12 - 12/4/12

So we got the overnight bus from Nha Trang to Hoi-An which was a nightmare of a journey. The bus left late, the toilet was out of use, I got spooned by a seventy year old Canadian the whole 14 hours and we continuously stopped every twenty minutes to pick up packages so the drivers could make themselves a bit of extra cash! We ended up picking up so many packages to deliver that they had to bring our luggage up from underneath in the hold so that they could get a few extra boxes in there! This meant that you couldn't get up because all the alleyways were blocked- mind you the only reason you would have wanted to get up would be to go to the toilet and that wasn't working anyway! James is also sure that he saw a box of live chickens get put underneath in the hold! Poor things! It is good writing the blog though because it makes me realise how funny these situations are when you look back at them. Quite honestly it is what makes traveling in Asia so much fun, but at the time it is anything but funny!


We decided against going to sleep when we arrived there at 7am, sometimes you feel so knackered that you check straight into a hotel and go to sleep for a couple of hours, but today for some reason we decided to have breakfast and then hire some bikes. Cycling on Vietnamese roads is probably not the safest but it is such an easy way to get around. James and I nearly got run over about every 5 minutes as the cars and lorries seem so oblivious to you. I think as Westerners though, we hesitate too much. This goes for when you cross the roads as well. We have learnt that you just literally need to walk out and go slowly because the drivers are used to this. It is being too hesitant and then running across the road at 100 miles an hour with your arms flapping about everywhere that will get you in trouble! Just be cool and stroll... that's how the Asians do it! 

 So we spent the day cycling around the narrow streets of Hoi An, through a bustling market, which I am sure we were not supposed to be there with our bikes, the path was too small. We then cycled over a bridge and onto an island to have a look around. The scenery all day was lovely. After this we cycled to the beach and parked under a huge communist poster. The beach was really stunning and if we had known this earlier we may well have missed out Nha Trang and come here instead.

We then had dinner by the river which was nice as you have to cross a lantern bridge which is what Hoi An is also famous for. We imagine that Hoi An looks a little bit like Venice, although neither of us have ever been there! It has a small river running through the middle of the town and there are lots of small, narrow roads with French style shops and houses. It is one of the prettiest towns we have seen is Asia. The main thing I remember about Hoi An is the amount of tailor shops there are there. It really is ridiculous, you would think someone would break the mould and perhaps open something different but no- every shop is a tailors. To be honest though some of them looked very good and if we had more money we may well have got something tailor made for ourselves.

After Hoi An we then moved on to Hue. We got a 2 hour train and to be honest it made such a nice change as we are so sick of traveling on buses. Seriously, I am never going to go on a bus again when I get home. We chose this train journey as well because it is supposedly of the most scenic routes you can do on a train in Vietnam. We weren't let down. We followed the sea on one side and then on the other side there was huge mountains which the train actually travels through. Put it this way though, I am glad that I couldn't see the bridges we were crossing as I can't imagine they were the safest.

 We arrived late afternoon so we checked into our hotel room and then went out for dinner. We found a really nice restaurant called Hot Tuna and the food was amazing! Real mash potato with chicken in a mushroom sauce, and it wasn't expensive either. The next day we walked to the citidel, which is a walled part of the city surrounded by water, and had a tuktuk take us around the inside of the city. We then went to the palace grounds and had a look around. Although we couldn't actually find the palace itself, the surrounding area was really pretty with temples and religious structures! In the evening, we had dinner in the same restaurant with an Irish couple that we met on the train from Hoi An.

Hue was in the middle of a festival when we arrived so there were all sorts of stalls and colourful flags dotted around everywhere. We are still not 100% sure what the festival was celebrating, every time we asked someone they just looked really confused and mumbled: 'yes, festival now', so in the end we gave up! The town looked nice and colourful anyway!