Hue, Vietnam

Hello!

So since I last emailed we have had an ordeal and a half! Friday and Saturday we took our tour to Halong bay. It was a 4 hour drive to the harbour then we got on the boat which was quite big so we were happy we would have less chance of getting sea sick. The bay is beautiful with hundreds of limestone islands for miles. There was tons of jelly fish too. We went to a beach for a while and visited a cave and then went kayaking. We met quite a few people here who were at the end of their travels so it was good to chat to them. A couple of English guys are motorbiking through Vietnam and with the state of the roads we thought they were mental! It was nice and relaxing although on the Saturday morning I wasn't too well so just stayed laid down. They then took us back to Hanoi Saturday afternoon which took 4 hours again. There was an odd Vietnamese couple in front of us on the bus who kept snogging which was a bit gross! On arriving back to Hanoi we were getting a night bus to Hue. The bus was really nice had air con and beds so we were happy. It was supposed to take 13 hours but at 5am we heard a loud bang and the tyre had burst. It took them 3 hours to fix an then we were back on the road. At 9am there was another bang and this time it was a snapped wheel Axel! Not a good journey. We were at the side of the road for a couple of hours before managing to flag down another bus. We eventually got to Hue very tired and hungry and 5pm instead of 8am! A 22 hour journey :( Our first day in Hue yesterday was lovely. It was so so hot and the sun was out. We went to explore the imperial city which is where the emperor used to live. The temples and houses were beautiful. We had dinner in a western restaurant as we didn't fancy rice/noodles again so that was nice change! We also went to a night market but it was a bit intimidating as really dark and big crowds. We both prefer Hue already there's a much more chilled out atmosphere. We noticed in Hanoi the people we very unwelcoming and stared an sometimes pointer at us and even laughed! I think this made our first few days quite hard combined with the jet lag, odd food, and overall culture shock. But we both seem much more settled into traveller life and much prefer the city here. Tomorrow we are taking a bus (just 4 hours this time) to Hoi An which is a beach town so we are excited about that. Hope the rain at home has stopped and everyone is well. Lots of love xxxxx