Hue

To get to Hue from Hanoi we had to catch a 12 hour sleeper train. All was going well and we booked our tickets in plenty of time. On arriving at Hanoi Train Station we presented our tickets to the guard and were told what platform we needed to head to. Once at the platform we found out what carriage we required and found our bunks. Mistake number one: I had accidently booked us hard sleepers rather than soft sleepers, so instantly we knew we were going to be in for a long night. We found that we were sharing our carriage with two older, local Vietnamese ladies. They turned out to be the rudest and possibly most disgusting people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting.....but that's a different story. To be fair the journey was not that bad and we managed to get plenty of sleep.

On arriving at Hue we were met at the station by the owner of the hotel, where we would be staying. She was the most lovely lady and organised us a taxi to get back to the hotel. On arrival at the hotel we were taken straight to our rooms. We were only paying £6 a night including breakfast so we were not expecting a lot. It has to be said that the room was very clean, light and airy and we settled in very quickly.

Having had a walk around town and carried out some research we decided the best way to see the tourist spots was through a organised tour. This we managed to sort through the hotel.
The day of the tour started well when the alarm went off at 6.30am. I turned the alarm off and managed to fall back asleep only to wake again at 8.05am. We were meant to meet the bus at 8.00am. Opps. Jumping out of bed, throwing some clothes on and running down the drive to meet the bus, we just about made it. Five minutes later we both realised that neither of us had bought any money for the day. Off the bus i got a sprinted back to the hotel to organise some things that we may need for the day trip. Ten minutes later i was back on the bus and we were off.

The first stop on the tour was the Citadel which is home to the third Emperor and one of the fiercest battles to take place in the American / Vietnam War. We learnt about how the Emperor used to live here and how he handed power over to Ho Chin Mi, before moving to France in 1948.
We then moved on to a local Vietnamese house which was occupied by a Minister of the Emperor and learned some basics about Feng-Shui. We also visited several Pagodas which were occupied by Monks and the basics of Buddhism was taught to us. Since being in Asia we have learnt so much about the religion and how peaceful it can be. A Pagoda is basically a Vietnamese temple. At the end of the day we had a nice trip in a dragon boat down the river where we were dropped off back in Hue.

It was lovely to see some of the local sights but unfortunately we were both feeling quite ill so the full potential was not taken from the day. Hue is a lovely little town and it was nice to be out of the craziness of the Hanoi.