Goodbye to Cat Ba, hello Hue

At the hotel it was eggs for breakfast again, then off to a much nicer boat that the one we'd stayed on, to sail back to Ha Long City.

Tourist trap

We said goodbye to the dragons and took the last photo in Ha Long Bay. At Ha Long City, we were taken to a terrible tourist trap restaurant where a hall full of people were all served the same rubbish we'd been eating for several days now. I decided that we would ask for a discount instead of getting any included food in future. I took advantage of the large concentration of tourists to leave another book, My Favourite War, lying casually on the steps in front of the restaurant (bookcrossing.com/542-6924659). I felt slightly unhappy leaving a book I'd really enjoyed, but my bag was starting to get lighter!

The bus took us to the hotel we'd been staying at, in Hue, and very kindly waited for us while we collected our bags. As I was picking the bags up, the guy behind the desk signalled to me to wait while he was on the phone; however the guide from our tour had grabbed one of my bags and was on his way out, so I followed him, worrying that the hotel had decided to charge us an extra two days for leaving our bags or something. However, why he got off the phone, just as I was going out the door, he said "I just wanted to say goodbye to you". Strange, but sweet all the same. I like Asians.

Happy on the sleeper bus

Then it was straight onto another bus at the travel agency: a "sleeper" bus to Hue. We didn't really know what to expect, but the first slightly unusual occurrence was that the driver asked us to take our shoes off and put them in a plastic bag as we got on the bus. The shoes were to go in little cupboards under the seats, which were in three rows and two layers, very reclined, but not quite flat. They also inclined to an almost sitting position; if you have short legs, that is. I have a theory that these were invented by the Vietcong during the American War to torture the much-taller-than-Asians Americans.

Misery on the sleeper bus

As it was my feet were stuffed as painfully as I could bear against the end of the metal "leg pouch", but my bum was still halfway up what would be the seat back if it were upright. So it wouldn't go up. Joanne seemed quite happy though, until I realised that my bed was actually shorter than her and we swapped, due to my additional height. Now we were both roughly equally uncomfortable, but much less than I had been before the swap. We did actually get some sleep, when I discovered my feet fitted better if I slept on my side, but I can't say it was the best sleep of my life. The shoe cupboard seemed like the ideal place to stash Flight Paths of The Emperor, another book I'd really enjoyed (bookcrossing.com/817-6924653).

The next morning we arrived in Hue, which is much smaller and much quieter than Hanoi. Even the traffic was calmer. After getting a hotel, we found a wee Vietnamese place to have brunch. The food was a huge improvement on what we'd been eating, but inexplicably we still got Lipton tea, when everyone else there was drinking green tea. Just after we left there, we passed another, Western and Vietnamese place who actually had Vietnamese tea on the menu. Finally! I now wonder if the key is that asking for tea doesn't get you it unless you specify Vietnamese tea; unless you ARE Vietnamese in which case I guess you have to specify Lipton tea if that's what you want. Anyway, it was worth the wait -- delicious -- and very cheap too. While we were on a roll, we decided to try the Vietnamese coffee too. Also excellent, and very strong.

Uncle Ho above the entrance to the Imperial City

Back at the hotel the two Dutch guys, who'd been on the boat with us, appeared. They had coincidentally booked into the same hotel. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Imperial City, a fortress within the fortress of the Citadel. It's modelled on the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Emperor was so paranoid, he even had a third, interior fortress, where his concubines lived. The Imperial City is huge, but parts of it are in quite a state of disrepair, bits of it having been destroyed in successive wars, and the Communist government not having taken much interest in preserving Imperial relics; however the restoration is well under way now that tourist money is pouring in. Walking around inside, we bumped into the French couple we'd been kayaking with in Cat Ba. It was becoming obvious that the tourist circuit here is quite small, or maybe just linear.

Outside the Citadel we picked up some unusual street food. I think it was potato with some other stuff over it, but it was quite nice. Later the good food continued with some delicious steamed spring rolls.

The downside of the day was I sustained the second casualty of the trip: I lost my sunglasses.

written by

The Happy Couple on February 5, 2009 from Hue, Vietnam

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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