The sleeper bus was not very comfortable. It was designed by koreans for Koreans so picture very small and short sleeping births. There were three rows of bunk beds in the bus with one bathroom. Now in Vietnam, bus drivers hoot to warn the scooters that they are passing so there wasn’t much sleep to be had either.
We arrived in Hue and walked to our hotel. After a shower and a snooze we headed out for some food and stopped at the Stop and Go Cafe. Here we were able to book a motor bike tour on the back of a bike with a war veteran. Floor opted to hire a bike with Monika but Lauren and I chose the guided option.
My guide was great and was called Buffalo Bill. He had worked for the US army and had picked up their slang. The funniest moments for me were when we would pass other bikers, he would shout hello. If they didn’t respond, he would swear at them. The scariest moments were his hip hop impression on the bike while we were still driving down the road. He was good fun and I learnt more about his personal life than I did about the war.
We stopped at the Thanh Toan covered bridge first where we could see some of the remaining water from the floods. Some of the roads that we were driving on had been covered in water 4 days before we were there.
Our next stop was the Tombs of Tu Duc where I gracefully fell down the wet moss covered stairs and landed up with a very painful bruise on my butt. My camera survived the experience. After the tombs, we headed to Bao Quoc pagoda where we were able to see monks in prayer. Next was a roadside stop to see how incense is made and I made my first $1 purchase. After a quick stop at bunkers, we headed towards the colosseum where tigers and elephants would fight before heading back to the hotel.
I was then given an additional tour of Hue of where Buffalo Bill worked, where I should go, where he eats... all while the others were back at the cafe. He gave me his card to keep in contact.
Next day we headed off on tour to the demilitarised zone. We were a little disappointed with the tour. There isn’t much to see along the way to the war tunnels apart from white sand used in sand bags, Vietcong memorials, cemeteries, the bombed Long Hung Cathedral, rubber plant farms, the bridge dividing north and south and the expanse of land the US army had their base on. The tunnels were interesting but we did hear that the Cu Chi tunnels in Saigon were better. The tunnels were quite wet and I got extremely dirty in the tunnels.
After a very interesting hunt for dinner restaurants (Monika – not going to say too much about the search – it was the Lonely Planet’s fault), Floor, Monika and I headed to the Why Not bar where we played board games, Jenga and Floor played some pool.
Next morning we jumped onto the back of the bikes of war veterans again to the Thien Mu pagoda and then on to the citadel. We spent the morning wondering around the citadel before our bus transfer to Danang.
