Hue 23rd March 2006 - Vietnam

We arrived in Hue by bus from Hoi An.
We thought that we had negociated a great deal, when we found a hotel for $15 a night, with A/C, TV and breakfast included and a free transfer from the bus station to the hotel.
When we pulled into the bus stop, a man was waiting for us with an A4 sheet of paper with our names on.
We gathered our bags, and asked him where his car was.
He looked rather confused, and kept pointing to the other side of the road although there was no car parked up.
We walked with him, crossing the road and straight into our hotel !!!
What a sales pitch.

Hue is not a place to visit on its own, its more of somewhere to stay and tral out from.
Everyone including our hotel, is trying to get you to part with your money for one of their tours.

Never ones to take the easy option, we chose to take a tour with a guy who owns a restaurant that we were eating at !!
It gets worse - The owner is both deaf and dumb !!
We paid him $10 to take us both on mopeds to all the local sites, which seemed a good deal as the tour would take all day.

We were picked up by Mr Luc and his partner in crime outside our hotel at 8am in the morning.
It was quite a fun start, as he doesn't speak and his friend didn't know any English.
Needless to say a guided tour was not an option !!

This is the famous Mr Luc who kept grabing at the Lonely Planet guide to show us that his restaurant was mentioned - He even knew the page number.



Well as is normal on tours in the far east, you get to see loads of temples.
We are now becoming a little too familiar with temples, although it has to be said that it was nice to see some and not be cold.





The idea was to show how small these status were, as the Emperor was so short that he wouldnt have them made taller than him.
The idea gets lost with Alison, as she's about the same size as these minitures !!















More female labourers hard at work in the mid day sun.


On the journey back to Hue, I had built up enough courage to take photos whilst sitting on the back of Mr Luc's moped.



I am getting quite desperate for a haircut, but this looked a little too cheap for my liking




Whilst on the way back, I managed to explain to the very deaf Mr Luc that we would like to stop at the vendors selling insence sticks.
It took some doing, but in the end he pulled alongside these two girls who were actualy making them.
Outside the stool, was loads of insence that had been raked over the verge side to dry.


Well after that exciting day, we decided to book another bus trip - This time its to the demilitarized zone.
We have managed to negociate with a tour company, that they will drop us off on the way back in a town that has a bus going to Laos.
We aren't too sure how this is going to pan out, so expect some laughs when we next get to an internet cafe !!