Ready to leave Hanoi, Erin and I headed to the travel cafe to catch the overnight bus to Hue. When we booked the tickets the travel agent showed us a picture that looked just like the overnight train, and at a third of the price, we jumped on the bargain. The bus was actually nothing like the picture. One traveler described it as a cattle car with people instead of cows. It was the most cramped space I have ever been in. I had to lay on my side just to fit in the seat. The seats were "pleather" and had rubbed my back raw by the time we arrived in Hue. On top of all that the driver drove like there weren't 60 people sleeping, honking his horn every 30 seconds and not being afraid to hit the brakes. The good news is we made it safe and like I said, a third of the price of the train.
After getting off the cattle car and fighting our way past the moto drivers that had "The best hotel, super cheap," we found a back ally that looked promising. While walking and reading the guidebook, I heard Erin shriek. I looked down and just in time changed the direction of my step to avoid the largest dead rat I have ever seen - truly, the size of a "large" cat. We finally found a nice room for a whopping $8.00 a night. It had a balcony and the concierge was very nice. One thing I noticed right away about Vietnam is the hotel employees and travel agents really like to plan your day for you. "Hom", our concierge told us to go rest for an hour, then come down and have breakfast. We agreed and at breakfast he was quick to draw us a walking tour and tell us all about the "Moto tour" he had planned for us the next day. The walking tour was good, so at $5.00 each Erin and I signed up for the moto tour along with the other 3 guests at the hotel. It actually turned out to be really fun. Each one of us had our own driver and we were like a biker gang of tourists cruising the streets. He took us to several places and told us everything we needed to know about the area.
All in all Hue turned out to be really fun, we even got hugs from Hom on the way out.
