I admit, I've been dying to use that terrible joke for a long time, since we left on a motorbike from Hoi An, heading to Hue. I'm not apologizing :P
First of all, the drive along the coast and through the mountains (people throw that word around a lot, they were hills, really) to get to Hue was absolutely gorgeous, one of my favourite moments in Vietnam. I admit, though, it was a slight test if my fear of heights (again, ugh) gripping the back of a crappy motorbike to stay on through the fairly steep ups and downs with stunning and terrifying views of trees and beach. Let's just say good thing I trusted my driver ;) and it was totally worth it. We stopped a few times here and there to use facilities, adjust helmets, consult the map and have a coffee/granola bar, but made good time and rolled into the city after about four and a half hours.
Surprisingly, we found our hotel no problem. After promising to come back to visit the travel agency staff who accosted us about tours before even getting off the bike, we checked in to a quaint little place in a cute little alley full of hotels and cafe/restaurant/bars. We realised later we were about a 7 minute walk from the hostel area, nice, because it was quieter but still easy to find a good night atmosphere.
We lingered around the area, waiting for our bags to be delivered as promised by the place we'd hired the bike. A lot of waiting followed...eventually we gave up and went exploring a bit, checked out the main areas.
Got our bags eventually and grabbed a nice dinner at a cool-looking place near the hotel. Now at this point I was learning that nowhere in Vietnam is only one kind of place. Everywhere is ALSO a travel agency and possibly a couple more thing. Literally, I've seen signs that say "hairdresser", "massage", and "tours, bus tickets", all pointing to the same place. So, naturally, the owner of the restaurant presents us with a booklet of tours they offer and to sway us introduces us to the Australian/Kiwi couple at the next table who've done one of them already. We didn't book the tour but had a nice chat and then evening of drinks and jenga with them.
The next day was hot and lazy, we made it to the Citadel, the main touristy point in Hue, which was really cool, and stopped for some locaol food on the way back, some kind of fried pancake things. Got s foot massage. Got a drink. Lazed. Booked a trip to Paradise Cave and then Hanoi the next day.
As is usual for us the night before an early morning, we ended up going out. I blame the free shots. Always blame the free shots. Anyway we managed to make it up the next morning, stuff some food into our mouths as the bus driver was shouting at us to get in aaand off North!
