Hue & Hoi An 31.05-05.06
Our next stop down the coast of Vietnam was Hue which is
pronounced “Huay!” It only seemed to sound right if you said it like you were
cheering! We had taken our first overnight bus in order to reach Hue. This was
quite an experience! The sleeper bus was laid out with sun lounger-esque chairs in two levels. Ed, Chris and I had a row
of three right at the back which were rather tightly packed in! They were
definitely built for Vietnamese body sizes rather than ours! Chris
had the worst seat by far as his body was about half a meter from the ceiling with an
uncontrollable A/C fan blowing into his chest! It was a rather bumpy ride in
the night and countless times Ed nearly bounced off his middle seat!
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| Chris ready for action |
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| 3 in the bed |
We reached Hue late in the morning so our first port of call
was to get some brunch. It was a boiling hot day so we waited for the midday
heat to pass in a cool floating bar set on the river, whilst of course playing
a few games of Mafia! Our main activity for the day was to visit the Royal Citadel
which was the ancient capital of Vietnam until 1945. It’s still enclosed in its
beautiful high walls and was the forbidden city for the Royal family. There
were some lovely buildings to explore although there was a random new tennis
court smack in the middle! Afterwards we had a look in the museum which had a
very interesting section on the Vietnam War. It was still very hot outside so
we cooled down at a nice bar and played some games of pool. In the evening we
went for a boogie at a small lively bar.
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| The team |
It was only three hours to reach Hoi An, our next stop. We
stayed in a great hotel called ‘Hoa Binh’ which coincidently Ed stayed the
previous time he was in Hoi An. There was a small swimming pool on the ground
floor which provided much needed respite from the outside heat and we also got
a free buffet breakfast! We couldn’t believe our luck at only £5 a night!
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| By the pool |
As it was my first time in Hoi An, it was literally love at
first sight! We all decided within the first day that we should extend our time
here and stay for 4 days instead of 3. Around the river there are numerous
small boutique shops and restaurants within old classic yellow buildings with
dark wooden shutters. It was such a nice place to wander around and even though
it was touristy it didn’t take anything away from the atmosphere of the city. One
of the most memorable things from Hoi An was definitely the food! With
everything so cheap, we all ate like kings for four days! Throughout our time
there, between us we managed to get through an impressive array of different
meats; fish, crab, chicken, pork, prawns, octopus, squid, squid stuffed with
pork, and frog! Cao Lao, a Vietnamese noodle dish with mint, pork and other
salad trimmings, became our staple lunch order at our hotel.
During our time in Hoi An we made two trips to the beach
which is around 5km from the centre of town. Both times we rented some bikes
and took the road through rice paddy fields to reach the sea. The first time we
were a little unlucky with the weather because as soon as we arrived a looming
black cloud proceeded to swallow up the blue sky! However, we were not going to
be deterred from our beach fun and in spite of the clouds we bought a volley
ball and played some games of piggy in the middle (which I must say the girls
absolutely dominated the boys!). On our second trip to the beach we were a lot
luckier with the weather and we could get working on the tan! Ed of course
stayed in the shade and had a nap. Whilst he was sleeping some Vietnamese
started laying out tables and chairs for their evening beach restaurants. He
woke up rather confused underneath a table! When we went to retrieve our
bicycles in order to cycle back to our hotel and we were very surprised to find
that all of our bikes had been thrown off the pavement and were lying in a
bundle on the sand! A very kind Vietnamese man came up to us and said that we’d
parked our bikes in the wrong place and the police superintendent was an angry man
and had chucked our bikes out of his way! What made it rather tricky was that
all of our bikes were locked together so it took quite a while to sort things
out! Ed began to ride home only to find that his back tyre was flat and had to
cycle all the way back doubly as hard as the rest of us!
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| The looming cloud! |
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| The bike-tastrophe! |
We had some fun nights out together whilst in Hoi An. It was
a nice change for Ed and I to travel in a group of 7! There were some lovely
bars and restaurants by the river. Although, one night we decided to go to a
bar called ‘Why Not?’ and by the end of the evening we could think of many
reasons why not! Firstly, it was very far out of town so once you’d got there
you were basically trapped there! The bar consisted of two very small rooms
mainly filled with a pool table which meant that during your conversation you
would get an occasional poke in the ribs from a snooker cue! Also the décor of
the rooms reminded me a little bit of a squat as people had taken marker pens
and graffitied everywhere! We still had a fun evening but chose not to return
to that bar again! Another evening we went to ‘Good and Cheap Bar’, the name
was a promising start! The owners turned out to be very friendly and we were
able to have a large table outside in which we could play various games. They
even let us stay there after they went to bed!
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(By the way please excuse my bright ginger hair in a few of the photos. It was the result of a tragic trip to a Vietnamese salon and requesting light brown. It was corrected 2 days later.... )
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