So I leave beautiful Hoi An for horrible Hue (pronounced Hway)! Maybe if you tour out into the countryside it would have been nice but I stayed in the city and it was pretty awful - people yelling at you from every direction asking if you want moto, cyclo, cold drink, boat for 1 hr!! (Don't ask me why you'd pay for their boat for one hour - the river was nothing beautiful at all! Maybe wrong time of year??) Anyway, it was stinking hot and humid - I think one of the most humid places I have ever been! And the city did not have a good vibe...
First day I decided to check out the market - I just ended up holding my nose the whole time! The fish smells are pretty full on - and they have all kinds of fishy things! And of course the people selling souveniers who call out "You! You! Come buy this! Lady! you want watch?". Gee, I really want to buy something from someone yelling out "You!" to me!! They were all so full on and quite aggressive and of course not very happy when I didn't want to buy anything! So I didn't last long in that market...not the kind of market I like to visit!
Then I went to a vegetarian place listed in the lonely planet and I ended up sharing my meal with a very brave rat who insisted on being very friendly!
The next day I booked a Hue city tour to the citadell (which I found out is where the king used to live) and to a pagoda and some tombs. The first half of the day going to the citadell and the pagoda were quite boring - it didn;t help that it was so humid that I was just dripping!
The afternoon perked up a bit cause we got out of the city and the landscape was more lush and beautiful. By the third tomb I was definately ready to leave the place and have a shower!!
To get back to the city we got one of the boats that I was being pushed the day before - the boat trip was so incredibly boring - nothing beautiful to see at all!!
So I was definately happy to leave Hue and was sorry that I hadn't spent my time there out in the countryside...
xxx Orna
