One night in Hue

Quite annoyingly, our taxi driver spent the entire 45-minute drive texting and calling people while driving. He wasn't the first person to do this, but every time it happens, I get closer to asking them to stop for the sake of our safety. However, they helpfully assist with our bags, and I forget all my anger.

The train journey felt like it picked up exactly where the last one left off. James was thoroughly enjoying the smallest amount of seat space he'd ever had, due to the seat in front being all the way back and, of course, feet up on the window. The view was actually quite magnificent. The train tracks snaked around the jungle-covered cliffs with the sea right below us, making us feel like we were in a Bond film. We moved to the food car to get a better view, and I stayed transfixed until a baby cockroach wandered past my window. We arrived in Hue and checked into our five-star hotel, which wasn't too expensive. We exalted in the stunning view of the river, the ancient palace, and the road traffic below. We eventually left in search of food, which, due to the time, was hard to find. We returned just in time to watch a huge rain cloud sweep over the city and sat and watched the lightning with awe from our viewpoint. We then headed to the pool, which had some of its large windows open, allowing us to watch and feel the thunderstorm as we swam around in the luxurious pool. It was amazing. In the evening, we popped up to the rooftop bar for some beers. After getting our fill of the view, we headed to the streets for a couple more beers on the main drinking strip. We heard a drinking chant reverberate around the tables around us but failed to comprehend it. We then wandered around the city a little bit and headed back to bed.

After a glorious breakfast with anything you could ever want, we checked out and got a taxi to a random shop, where we'd be getting a sleeper bus to Hanoi. The bus was supposed to leave at three, but we ended up waiting in that spot for at least another hour. There was one other Vietnamese lady also waiting, so we were fairly confident they hadn't just forgotten about us. Eventually, the minibus arrived and transferred us to the start point of the sleeper bus. This time, we had our own individual bunks opposite each other. I was pretty comfy except I couldn't get high enough to see out the window while reclining. We made one comfort break at a local place where we were the only Westerners. We had bought enough snacks to sustain us, so we didn't end up getting anything except for some strange coconut toffee candies, which I couldn't decide if I liked.

We arrived in Hanoi in the rain in the wee hours of the morning and eventually managed to get a taxi to our Airbnb apartment, which we had to go through a flower shop to access. We managed to fall asleep straight away.Читать далее