On our last day in Hanoi, we booked a sleeper bus to take us on the 12 hour journey down to Hue. When it pulled up just after dinner, we almost died with excitement. It was pretty much a replica of the Knight bus on Harry Potter. It was so cool! There were 3 rows of beds, each of them bunks, and everyone got a little pillow and blanket. I took a couple of photos but the hostel computer wont let me upload them, so when we get to another one I will put them all up. Oh my gosh you can not even believe how great it was. The funniest thing was that it drove like the Knight bus too. We were swerving in and out of traffic and dodging people left and right. It was so much fun, though not the best sleeping conditions there ever were. Luckily we had anticipated this, and had taken on a little vodka which meant I was out like a light after about half an hour, despite all the excitement and the novelty of the experience. The novelty wore off pretty quickly though, because unlike Harry Potter, we had to spend 12 hours on the bus. The beds were really comfy-but about 2 inches too short-and when I woke to the swerving and honking of the bus I was astounded that I had actually slept at all! At around 5am we nearly skittled a water buffalo that was being herded across the road in some little town. The driver slammed on the brakes so hard that everyone slid forward until we were all awkwardly crumpled at the foot of our little beds. Everyone's bags slid halfway down the aisle, and I was laughing my head off with this old Vietnamese guy who was opposite me. It was that hysterical "I'm pretty sure we just narrowly escaped death" cackle that made the whole situation even more funny. Claire slept through it though and so wasn't as enthusiastic as she could have been about survival when I woke her to tell her about it 2 minutes later. She didn't miss out though, because we spent the following 4 hours swerving in and out of oncoming traffic, forcing trucks off the road and side swiping God knows what. I swear we passed about 5 pelatons of school children who must have had a major ride if they were up and cycling at 5:30am. At one point, I nearly got knocked out by a flying bottle of water that kamakazeed off one of the tops bunks as we crossed 3 lanes of traffic to avoid a sausage dog on the highway(?) Hahaha. I have come to accept that the road rules are; the person who is going the fastest and beeping the loudest gets right of way. It was no wonder that a lady came running and vomited all into the bus stairwell, which was conveniently located to out immediate right, just next to the most foul smelling toilet you will ever come across. Ugh. I shudder just thinking about it. I used almost a whole bottle of perfume trying to do something, anything to make it better. We arrived safely-finally-at around 9am, and were picked up by the hostel car. This place is beautiful, such a chilled out area. Free brekky, coffee and tea all day, cocktails for 50c at happy hour, the most amazing friendly staff. Oh it's paradise.
After arriving we decided to go and see some of the sights, we asked the people at the hostel to give us the best and cheapest way-so they ordered us 2 guys on bikes to take us around (sorry Mum) At 11:25, two nice looking chaps rolled up and introduced themselves and Thung and Chi. They got us all suited up and away we went. It was so much fun. I have never been on one of those scooters and it as surprisingly relaxing, nothing like being on the back of a real motorbike. The seats were comfy and really big-I guess they cater for all sorts of fat tourists! We went to this one pagoda which they explained was one of the most significant structures for Buddhists, and was surrounded by an old school for monks. There were little monks chanting in their class, which was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. They wore grey or brown robes, and had their heads shaved except for the fringe. It was such a serene and peaceful place, right on the edge of the river, a world away from the bustle of the roads. We went to the tombs on 2 emperor's after that. They were enormous! First we went to Minh Mang and then after, Khai Dinh. They were both so beautiful, and so ornate. Really overwhelming. The first one was sprawled over an enormous area, incorporating a lake and many gardens. You could clearly see the chinese influence in the design, whereas with Khai Dinh it was the European influence that showed, and the mosaics in the actual tomb covered everything and were just incredible. I think we both preferred the second one.
It was such a great way to see the country, because they took us on all these back roads and through mountains. It all kind of fell apart though after the last tomb, when they said we had to pay them when we got back to the hostel. We freaked out because we had already payed the people at the desk when we booked, and they had told us that the drivers never ask for money. Long story short, the guys we were actually meant to go with rocked up just after we had gone! These two had pretended to be our hired guides! We figured it all out in the end, and managed to have got a better deal than we first had organised-plus a bit of excitement/freaking out. Haha! Wow that is long as, I'm going to go wake Claire and get some free brekky :) Bye!
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