Who's in Hue

After one hell he'll of a bus journey we have arrived at our latest destination, Hue in mid Vietnam. It's nice to get the front seat of a bus but I'm never sure if it's a good idea. Last time I managed it was on a journey in Colorado, crossing Loveland pass during a raging blizzard we were relying more on blind faith and ignorance. I am still not sure how we got through that as the bus didn't bother to slow down. Today's was slightly different, it was more about the state of the bus and the driver. If he wasn't on his phone he was reading, normally driving with no hands. I noticed the speedo didn't work, turned out not to be an issue as I don't think we ever reached 30 mph. When it rained on the outside it rained on the inside too, to be honest i am surprised it even started, it normally took a few attempts. Anyway, that's how we got here but how did we get there far? It all started back in Ho Chi Minh (HCM)

Our first day was a classic sightseeing trip in the rain. We took in all the local spots while battling with mopeds and risking life crossing the roads. It seems as long as you can miss the big things, buses and cars, the little things will miss you. I think you just have to hope that they want to hit you less than you want to be hit! 

In the evening we got to catch up with an old friend of mine who used to work with me in Aspen. He took us to a locals place to eat snails, I don't think Kinga was too keen but she tucked in and put on a brave face. It is always good meeting up with old friends. In Vietnam they all seem to sit around in very small plastic chairs drinking and eating. I asked my friend about this and he said its because they're all small, everyone looks normal sized to me. It is always funny to see, the chairs wouldn't look out of place in a kindergarten. When you finish you just chuck all your rubbish on the floor, they come along pick up the table and chairs, sweep underneath and by the time you look back they are ready for their next snail muncher. 

Following day we did a tour, it was ok, a highlight was a canoe trip through the jungle, reminded me of some computer games I used to play based on the Vietnam war. In the evening we met some English teachers and had a few beers and a chat with them, it was a fun night, we also found a roof top bar that managed to rip us off, they always do but I always fall for it.

Next morning was spent at the War Remnants Museum. They have a lot of military hardware out front and then loads of photos. It was another emotional trip. There was a whole section with picture of survivors of agent orange, a chemical used to clear the forests. 3 generations on and there are still birth defects from surviving families, it was a horrific act of warfare. I can't believe that in the US they have admitted the side effects of the chemical and compensated their veterans, even Korean veterans, but nothing has been said about the Vietnamese people. Hundreds of thousands have been effected, the effects are also hereditary so their kids and kids of kids are still being effected. Not so much as an acknowledgement.

Aside from that the museum was pretty one sided, full of propaganda but well worth a visit. Photo that stands out is a picture of a Viet Cong group taking 1600 hostages alive...doesn't say what happened a day later, I bet they didn't stay in that condition. Anyway, war is shit and we all know that.

In the evening we caught the overnight train to go to Hoi An. It was long and bumpy but we survived. The food wasn't too good and that wasn't helped by the lack of English spoken by the staff. We bough one thing, this is how it went..

Me "What's that?"

Food lady "Banana leaf"

Me "I see that, but what's inside?"

Food lady "Yes"

Me "Yes?"

Food lady "Yes...Inside"

Me "But what's in there?"

Food lady "Yes"

Me "Is it rice?"

Food lady"Yes rice"

Me "So there's rice in the banana leaf?"

Food lady "Yes, banana leaf"

Me "Ok, why not?"

Guess what, it wasn't rice inside if there, it was a steaming while lump of gelatinous gloop. One taste and we were gagging! Digging deeper into it we found some kind of meat but we had decided train food may not be for us so it went in the bin and we tucked into our Oreo's.

We arrived in Hoi An on about 1 hours sleep behind us so we went straight for a nap. In the evening we went for a walk, I was tired and in some kind of super grump. HCM was full of mopeds, constantly beeping and coming at you, it gets so annoying the amount of times you have a moped appear in front of you and make you jump. Hoi An was nowhere near as bad but still very annoying and I was in no mood for it. I think I was about 2 beep away from beeping someone in the face. It's a shame really as Hoi An was a really nice town, at least I got some good pictures.

 The next day we though if you can't beat them join them so we hired mopeds and became beeping mother beepers ourselves. Kinga was a little timid at first but didn't take her long to get into it. We used them to check out some beaches and had a much needed relaxing beach day. The hard thing is when your staying still is people try to sell you stuff, my problem is I like all of it so we will be coming back with plenty of stuff! Kinga's development has been quite fun, there was a whole list of things she wasn't going to do, here's how it went;

Day 2 riding in tuk tuks

Day 4 drinking ice

Day 5 eating salad

Day 7 sitting down on the toilet seat (in hotel rooms)

Day 11 riding a moto (back of motorbike)

Day 14 hiring a moped!

Funny, maybe it's something to do with the fact she is also now drinking beer, she even admitted she liked it tonight!

I guess that brings it up to date, this is the second time I have written this as the first one got lost somewhere, so when I say it's time for me to go to bed that was originally written over an hour ago so now it is definitely time!

Goodnight!