Christmas in Bangkok

We got the train from Ayutthaya and arrived in Bangkok 2 days before Christmas. This time we stayed in a different part of Bangkok, Silom, still quite busy, but not as much of a buzz in the streets as in Khao San road area. Did a bit of shopping in MBK and bought Christmas presents for ourselves. Colin got an A&F top and I got a ge-nu-wine Links of London bracelet. On the 24th evening Colin and I celebrated on our own with a few drinks and maltesers. On Christmas day the rest of the Greeners arrived and we had a traditional Christmas dinner... Red Thai Curry and Chicken pad Thai. We did a bit more shopping on Boxing day before all spending the afternoon at the hotel pool.
On our last day in Bangkok we headed back towards the Khao San road area to see the Grand Palace and the emerald buddah and Wat Pho and the reclining buddah. Colin wasn't allowed in the Grand Palace with shorts, so had to rent some funky trousers. He was almost tempted to keep them, but didn't want to pay what they asked.
It was really nice to spend Christmas with family, especially as we've not seen family since leaving South Africa in November.
Next we head to Koh Samui and Colin and I have a bus and ferry journey to look forward to.

Ayutthaya - Thailand

We left Laos and stopped off at Ayutthaya, which is an ancient city and the former capital of Thailand. The train we were on was supposed to stop at 4:30am, so we set our alarm, but annoyingly we only actually arrived at about 6:30am... but don't worry, I got in a snooze while Colin stayed awake. We decided to walk from the station to the hostel, as Colin said it wasn't very far... I learnt, not for the first time, that Colin's 500m actually means 2km's.
We were warned about all the stray dogs in Ayutthaya, but only once we got there did we see how many of them there really are. They're all over the place and they look very horrible and sick, some of the female dogs look like they have cow's udders on them. On our walk to the hostel one of these dogs was lying on the pavement in our way. I walked round him, quite close and he growled at me, but we thought no more of it and kept walking. Next thing we know this dog has come up behind us and is barking and growling at us, looking like he's ready to eat us up. We were so scared, but didn't want to run as he would probably have chased us. We managed to lose him when we crossed the main road and he got stuck behind a bus. It was as if he lay on the pavement and thought he'd let us go after growling at us the first time, but then decided on second thought that he's not doing anything else with his day so why not scare these silly tourists. After this we kept a big distance from any dog.
Besides the dogs, the city is full of ancient buildings, monuments and temples. We cycled around going to all the different sites and taking loads of photos. We can imagine what an amazing city it must have been when everything was still standing as it's even very impressive now.
It was very hot here, over 35 on both days, so we got quite tired cycling round and caught a bit of sun. It was nice to stop off here and relax before heading back to the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.

Vientiane

On Thursday morning a tuk-tuk picked us up from our hostel to take us to the bus stop. Twelve of us were crammed on the back and Colin and 2 other guys had to stand up, holding on to the rails, as the driver sped down the little roads. When we got to the bus stop a big bus was waiting for us, although we'd booked a mini van, but we were told to get on despite the driver not being able to talk enough English to tell us for definite that we were on the right bus. Once our bags were on and we'd settled into a seat, we heard that the bus was going to the airport and no mention of Vientiane city centre. So we got off to find out what's happening, but felt reassured that we'd get to Vientiane by this bus, as almost everyone else on there were in the same situation as us, so got back on. Apart from this confusion at the start, the journey was alright and this time it was 3 hours like they said it would be. We did stop at the airport, which we found was only a few km's outside of town and the next stop was Vientiane town centre. There was a Chinese lady on the bus with a little baby (maybe 3 months old) and when we got to the airport I got off the bus to get some fresh air. The lady got off too and looked around nervously. Next thing I knew the baby was in my arms and she disappeared off. He was a very good baby, didn't make a peep and although I didn't mind holding him, I was a bit worried that his mom had gone off somewhere, never to return and Colin and I would have a little traveller joining us. Colin, looking down from inside the bus, was even more nervous than me and wanted me to keep my eye on the mom. She did come back and though the baby didn't cry when he was sitting by me, he cried a bit when his mom took him back.
We came to Vientiane to explore the city and see the many beautiful temples and also to get visas for Thailand (we're only allowed 15 days at a time in Thailand if we cross the land borders, but in Vientiane we get a 60 day  Thai visa for free). Once we had taken our passports in, we had  to stay 4 days in Vientiane. We've seen a few really old and pretty temples called Stupas, Wats and Thats. We also went up a building that was a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, which we thought was beautiful, but the inscription on the wall desribes it as ugly and a "concrete monster". There's also a lot of new buildings being built here and I imagine that in a few years time the city will look totally different and be much more developed.
We've enjoyed our time in Laos, it wasn't somewhere we originally had on our schedule, but due to recommendations we decided to come here afterall. It's a very relaxed and laid back country and being here forces you to chill out too. There isn't all that much to do in Laos, but it's worth a visit if you're in this part of the world and plus you can get a Thai visa which saves you doing border runs mid way through your trip.
Next we head back towards Bangkok for Christmas and are really looking forward to seeing Les, Eileen and Kelly. We have a couple of extra days so we'll stop off somewhere on the way.

Vang Vieng

Having left early from Luang Prabang, we expected to arrive in Vang Vieng in the early afternoon, but a 5 hour bus journey turned into 10. Within in the first hour we broke down twice and so by the inevitable third time happened the bus came to a standstill and the engine died, by this time we had travelled about an hour. We stopped here for 2 hours in which time a new bus was on it's way and the old bus was being repaired. Just as the old engine started up again, the new bus appeared, but we'd all got off the old bus and didn't want to get back on. After this commotion, we headed off again, but pretty slowly, as the road was dangerous with lots of sharp bends. At least we had lunch to look forward to, provided free by the bus company... or so we thought. By 2pm we thought we must be stopping any minute. By 3pm, we started to get grumpy and feel sick. By 4pm, we thought the driver must have missed the lunch stop and we'd given up on eating as we should have arrived in Vang Vieng by this time. At 5pm, we finally stopped for lunch, worried this was only half way of our journey. Thankfully we arrived in Vang Vieng around 7pm, but were so tired and hungry we had dinner and went striaght to sleep. A real waste of a day!
The main reason we came to Vang Vieng was for tubing. This involves drifting down the Nam Song River on a tractor tyre inner tube. Along the way there are plenty of bars all selling drinks and food, but some included opium shakes, even though it's illegal here. Vang Vieng is the centre for drugs in Laos, we heard so many stories of people comsuming too much and the police accepting bribes off people when caught in possession. We just stuck to beer and I tried the Laos whisky with pineapple juice.
Vang Vieng is a nice, but strange town. It really targets western tourists with tv room style bars mostly showing Friends reruns and walking through town you see clips for about 20 different episodes and people lying on beds in the bars drinking and watching. It's a bit bizarre.
There is also an ex-CIA runway in the middle of town that's not used for anything except dropping off tourists from the buses. It was built to be used during the Vietnam war and now just stands empty. Other parts of the town are really pretty, with the river running through it, little bridges across and also the views of the mountains in the distance.
We had a great time here (despite Colin being a bit unwell on the second day) and are pleased we stopped off. From Vang Vieng we go to Vientiane, luckily only a few hours by bus... we hope.

CIA runway

Laos - Luang Prabang

We left Chiang Mai on Saturday morning and got to the Thailand border at about 3pm. We then had to get on these little boats (picture below), as the Laos / Thailand border is the Mekong River, so this was the only way across, but was fun and interesting. From here we still had an overnight bus journey to Luang Prabang. This drive was not very comfortable, as the roads were incredibly windy and the seats were cramped.
So after 20 hours on the bus we arrived in Luang Prabang early on Sunday morning. This might sound like a long time, but the other option was to get a slow boat which would have taken 3 full days and 2 nights and the boats have hard seats and didn't seem all that safe.
We liked Luang Prabang, especially walking along the Mekong River that runs alongside the town and found a bar that made the nicest fruit smoothies where we just hung out. Our first impression of Laos food wasn't great, but mostly because of the restaurant we first went to.  To start they brought me the wrong order, with the wrong rice and when I eventually got my food, by which point Colin had nearly finished and my rice was cold, I found a little cockroach in my food. Luckily we had some nice food the second day at a place that was so festivly decorated you'd think it was Santa's grotto. Both evenings we walked through the night market with such lovely and different items, which again we were tempted to buy.
The next day we got an early bus and headed to Vang Vieng.

Trek in Chiang Mai

On our third day in Chiang Mai we organised a trek in the jungle. This is the main attraction to Chiang Mai and something that everyone had recommended for us to do. We got picked up from our hostel in a little truck and after a quick stop to pick up some supplies, arrived at a village where we were served lunch. After lunch we started walking and it wasn't too long till we saw the elephants we would be riding. This was an amazing experience, although I think it helped that we had a good elephant that stuck to the path and followed the guide through the river. The other group with us had a much larger and naughtier elephant. He was always disappearing off the path to eat, he sprayed water and broke a few trees on the way. Half way through the ride, the other group wanted to get off as they were getting a bit worried, especially when they had big branches falling on their heads and shoulders.

After the elephants we started our long trek through the jungle to where we were spending the night. It was really hard going, all uphill, the temperature was really hot and it was very humid. Luckily everytime we thought we couldn't go anymore, the guide stopped for a rest and after some water we felt fine again. Just before sunset we arrived at our cabin. Dinner was made for us on a fire, green curry and rice and there was a fridge full of beers. We spent the evening chatting with the others in our group and our guide who wanted to practice his English (although he was really good already). He got quite animated when he was immitating the lady boys to try and explain to us how to spot them. He also taught us some cocktail stick games. We were all pretty tired after the tough day of trekking and were asleep by 10:30pm.

The next morning we had scrambled egg and toast and headed out of the village and back into the jungle for the next part of our trek. The next place we came to was a waterfall and becuase we were so hot from 2 hours of trekking, we dived into the cold, but refreshing water. After a nice swim, we trekked a bit further for lunch at another village then got transported to the rafting station.

Here we went white water rafting down the river, there wasn't too much white water as it's the dry season, but we still got drenched and managed to lose our guide on one of the rapids. One minute he's telling us when to paddle, the next minute he's swimming past our raft chasing his oar. We thought we'd be fine without him, but got stuck on a rock and had to wait for help from on of the other groups. Eventually the guide got back in once the rapids were over. We enjoyed this part and would like to do it again, but next time with bigger rapids. Finally we switched over to bamboo rafts. These just seemed to sink straight away and we were basically sitting with half our bodies in the water, floating down the river. We were slightly worried that we were sinking, until we found out the pater was only about a foot deep. After drying off, we headed back to Chiang Mai. We really enjoyed the entire trek and would definitely recommend it if you come here. It did help that we had a really nice group with us.

Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai feeling refreshed as we'd had a good night's sleep on the train. It was nice to get off the buses and back onto the more comfortable sleeper trains. Got to our hostel and were very pleased to see it had a pool. We walked through the town and little markets both of the mornings we were here and then came back to the hostel for a swim in the afternoon. One of the mornings when we'd stopped for a drink from a little shop, a Thai man started talking to us. He was asking Colin about England and he said that he'd been to London a few times and some parts of Europe too. Then he asked us what we thought of Thailand and what we had done so far and what we were going to do next. Then he started asking about shopping and if we like to buy things and what sorts of things we look for. Up to this point we thought, or should I saw hoping, he was just a nice man that wanted to talk to us, but then he mentioned precious stones that he takes to London to sell. We'd just read the story in the Lonely Planet which mentions this exact scam... usually turns out that the "precious stones" are coloured pieces of glass. He ended the conversation pretty quickly once we told him that we'd read about the "precious stones". We've found that we've become so sceptical when people talk to us, we know they're either trying to sell us something or scam us and a few times we've felt guilty for thinking the worst first, but so far we've often been right.
On the first evening, after coming back from dinner, we went down a little side street (soi) and saw an elephant in the road. It was with 3 guys who seemed to be having dinner on the road and this elephant tried to grab their food and was wacking them on the head with its trunk. Then the men would shout at the elephant and make it turn around and face the wall, it was so funny.
The next evening we went to Chiang Mai night market and wandered through the stalls. After a while they all sell the same thing, but we did see a few bits that we'd love to have gotten if we had the space in our already heavy bags.
Our third and fourth days here we organised a trek in the jungle round Chiang Mai, but now we leave for Luang Prabang in Laos, where we plan to spend the next few weeks.

Quick stopover in Bangkok

We left Cambodia on Friday morning on a long bus journey to Bangkok. The ride to the Cambodian border was good and leaving Cambodia was fine too. Then we had to literally cross the border, on foot and go through to Thailand and then jump in a minibus. There were about 40 of us going to Bangkok, but we got separated after the border to fit into these little buses. There's 13 seats in these and the driver, but that leaves no space for luggage. Colin and I were the last 2 to be called to one of the buses, but when I saw how packed it was I was convinced that we wouldn't fit on there and so didn't want them putting my bags in until I knew for sure it would be our bus. The guy got annoyed with me and told me that I have no choice, either I climb in the bus or I stay at the border. We did all get on, but Colin and I had to share one and a bit seats for about 5 hours and Colin had the luggage digging into his side. It was not a pleasant drive, especially in the heat, but we did arrive safely.
We really only went to Bangkok to get to Chiang Mai, as we're going back to Bangkok in a few weeks for Christmas, but thought we'd use the time to explore the Khao San Road area and parts of the old city. We were walking around when we heard a band and saw all the Thai people standing to attention. I had read that the national anthem gets played a few times a day and that the locals stop what they're doing and stand to attention and that it is respectable if you're a tourist to also stand to attention. So we did stop walking and had a few people looking at us, amused that we knew what to do. They're so patriotic, it's wonderful!
For dinner we both ordered Pad Thai... Colin said the one I make is better and I thought so too, but didn't want to be the first to say it myself.
We'd had enough of the buses, so booked an overnight train to Chiang Mai. A taxi took us to the train station and I thought I'd share the amusing "what not to do" sign on the window.

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

We arrived in Siem Reap quite late, so just grabbed a traditional Cambodian meal, Hawaiian Pizza. Then straight to sleep after another long bus journey. We came here to see Angkor Wat, but knew we'd be tired the next day, so after a wander around town in the morning, spent the day by the hostel pool, just relaxing and drinking pineapple Fanta, before heading back to town in the evening for dinner and drinks. This time we did have traditional food, some Cambodian curries with Angkor beer.
The next morning we awoke at 5am, hired bikes and cycled to Angkor Wat. The hostel suggested this time, so we could arrive for sunrise, and although we ended up missing it, we still got there at a nice time as there were no crowds yet. We got free parking for our bikes, but only with a $2 cup of tea that was worse than you get on an airplane. We spent about 4 hours at Angkor Wat, taking loads of photos and exploring the temple. The temperature was already uncomfortable on our cycle there, but by 10am it was unbearable, and we tried to find shade wherever we could. It's both hot and humid here, so there's not much escape even in the shade.
After Angkor Wat we went to Angkor Thom, just a few km's further. There were more temples here, but they were smaller in size and different to Angkor Wat. Some were terraces, some had been destroyed and were being restored and some you could see how the used to look, but were now in a state of disrepair.
After 4 more hours exploring and cycling around the rest of the impressive complex, we headed back to our hostel for a cooling swim, some food and a snooze. We spent the evening in Siem Reap again, it's a really nice little town, with a lively nightlife, but really is catered to us tourists.
We've really enjoyed our stay here, but next is Bangkok which will take us to northern Thailand and Laos.

Phnom Penh

We left Vietnam on a 6 hour bus ride to get to Cambodia. This involved going through 2 borders, the Vietnam border was the most disorganised and inefficient mess we've ever seen (although weirdly it didn't take as long as we thought). We had to give our passports to the bus driver who then gave them to the official at the border. We all queued up like you would expect to do, but after 10 minutes a Chinese tourist told us there's no need to queue as you just have to listen for your name and then go forward and through. So first they did all the Vietnamese people, then other Asian people and then the foreigners. Of course the guy couldn't pronounce our names so ended up holding the passports in the sky and hoping people would recognise their own. We're still not sure what the point of this was. Going through the Cambodian border was much easier... or at least it should have been. When we got to the front, the lady told Colin: "Your visa no good, not found". After a few minutes of searching the system and me cussing the lady that organised our visas, they found the mistake and his visa. The barcode didn't match the number of the visa. So we entered Cambodia and had 3 more hours on the bus before we arrived in Phnom Penh. Just outside of Phnom Penh we had to catch a ferry across the river and while waiting to board the ferry we had little kids knocking on the bus windows begging for money. I spotted a boy that hadn't come over, instead he was next to an older man that was hitting him and throwing him around. Finally the man grabbed the boy, pulled down his pants and then hung the boy on a tree by his t-shirt. For a second I felt so sorry for the boy, then I realised he was a cheeky little devil, as when the boy got down he was hitting the man with a stick as he had done before. When he saw me looking at him, he came over and winked and blew me kisses and then appologised to Colin.
When we got to our bus stop, as usual we had loads of tuk-tuk drivers hounding us to drive with them. We decided we'd walk instead, but when we found out it was 4km in this humid weather and with our backpacks we quickly changed our minds. We stopped a guy along the road and took our first tuk-tuk ride, which turned out to be really fun, even though it was quite slow.
There wasn't too much we wanted to do in Phnom Penh, we were just happy to sit at cafes watching the happenings in the town and drinking banana milkshakes and cocktails. On the second day we walked past the palace and a temple, but weren't too fussed to go into either and in the afternoon there was a rain storm that forced everyone indoors. We weren't caught in the rain, as we'd got back early, not able to stand the heat and were sipping a milkshake while watching the drenched people come in.
We headed off the next day for Siem Riep.

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

We took our last overnight bus ride in Vietnam and arrived in Saigon at 6am on Friday. Even at this early hour the city was buzzing with traffic and people. After a bit of a rest at our hostel, we headed out to explore. The map we have and the actual road names don't always match up, but we managed to find our way to the post office builing, which is quite impressive and beautiful inside and also past the cathedral where we took some more photos. Walking around the city is really nice, despite the traffic that is absolutely crazy. You'll sometimes see 4 or 5 people on a moped (parents and 3 kids all holding on for dear life), they use the mopeds to transport anything and everything. Yesterday we saw a guy with a fridge/freezer kind of balancing on the moped, we've seen big tv's on there and people with 10 boxes somehow strapped on as they zoom past you. It's unbelieveable!
This morning we got up bright and early to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was a very interesting tour where they showed us the tunnels they made to hide and live in, weapons (how they made and used them), boobie traps they set up for the American soldiers, some craters and tanks. We also saw how they used to knot the leaves on trees to mark their whereabouts . Lastly we got to walk through one of the tunnels. This tunnel has been widened and some lights put in part of the way so that tourists can get through more easily and even still it's very claustrophobic and scary down there. It's incredibly humid and sticky above ground and underground is even worse. A few meters was enough for Colin and I, because you feel like you can't breath and like you'll never see light again.
This evening we went for another nice meal, we've really enjoyed the food in Vietnam. One annoying thing is that even when you're eating you have people coming into the restaurants trying to sell you things. Just as I got my food this evening I spotted a little girl come towards us and I had already prepared my I'm not interested face, but rather than beg me to buy something from her she came righht up to my plate with her face. I had to pull my plate away because it looked like she was going to slurp my food up. It was so weird, I wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for her or annoyed.
We leave Vietnam tomorrow morning and head to Cambodia. We've both absolutely loved our time here and definitely want to come back. It's a wonderful country, with lovely people, delicious food and so much beauty to experience and explore. Add Vietnam to your "countires to visit" list!

Nha Trang

The bus journey was a really good one... if you ask Colin, as he slept pretty much the whole way. I however didn't sleep at all as we had a dodgy bus driver that was allowing Vietnamese people without tickets on to the bus and accepting money on the hush-hush. Some of the people were drunk and were talking loud at 3am and when there weren't enough beds they slept on the floor in the aisles. Colin woke up when we got to Nha Trang and had no idea about what had happened.
It was raining when we arrived here, but after checking into our hotel, having breakfast and a little snooze it cleared up and we went for a walk along the beach and through town.
The next day was a lovely, sunny day, so we headed to the beach again hoping to swim and catch a tan. Unfortunately the sea was very rough because of the recent flooding and we just couldn't get close to the water without being swept off our feet by the huge waves. So we decided to play it safe and stay on the beach, Colin in the shade as always.
Had 2 lovely meals at a restaurant here called Lanterns, had really nice Vietnamese curry and the best calamari I've ever tasted. Definitely worth a visit if you're in Nha Trang.
That's it for this little beach town, we leave tonight and head to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

Hoi An

We left a rainy Hue at 8am on Saturday and after a 4 hour bus drive arrived in sunny Hoi An. We weren't quite sure we were in the right place, as there didn't seem to be much around the bus stop. Luckily it was only a 5 minute walk into the town before it livened up. We liked Hoi An after just a few minutes wandering around. The main bit of the town is right on a river and although it's not all that pretty, the buildings are beautiful and there's a really nice vibe here. On the first night we walked down all the streets and past the shops with all sorts of pretty, interesting things. The only annoying thing is that you don't feel like you can look at anything, because if you look the people think you want to buy something and then hassle you. It's so hard to be firm without being rude... Colin ignores them, I acknowledge them and politely say no, but then they only hassle me more and eventually I get annoyed from having things stuffed in my face and the people grabbing my arms to keep me at their shop. That evening we wanted to walk along the front of the river and find a nice restaurant, but the tide was so high that the road was flooded right up to the restaurants. We walked as far as we could before we had to go through the kitchen of one the restaurants and we decided to eat here. We sat right at the front, facing the river and had the water by our feet, it was lovely. The town was buzzing with music playing and people performing and singing and there were candle lanterns floating down the river. We ordered the Cau Lao, a local speciality, to share, but enjoyed it so much that we ordered a second.
Hoi An is the place to have tailormade clothes, so the next day we went to be fitted for suits. They took our measurements and asked me how long I would want my jacket. Colin was annoyed that I didn't use the obvious punchline. After this as it was such a nice day we hired some bikes and cycled to the beach. The water was glorious, warm and had nice waves. We spent a few hours just swimming and sunbathing on the beach (although Colin sat in the shade). We came back in the evening for dinner and to have our first fitting and our suits were beginning to take shape.
Woke up this morning to rain, but by the time we went to pick up our suits it had stopped. We are very pleased with the suits, the quality is great and the tailored clothes look really nice. We've spent the rest of the day just walking around, it's such a nice town to wander through.
We leave Hoi An this afternoon on yet another overnight bus to Nha Trang.

Hue

Our hostel organised a bus to pick us up and take us to the overnight bus stop to leave Ha Noi. This bus had enough space for 9 people without luggage, but somehow they managed to fit 11 of us in and our backpacks and hand luggage too... we were so squished. We had to drive off pretty quickly as the police were on the lookout.
The overnight bus wasn't as modern as the one we'd been on before, but still decent enough. This time it was mostly westeners travelling and only a few local people. We had a Spanish guy on the bus, let's call him Xavi, who had smelly feet and a stinking attitude to go with it. Xavi, who was loud and clearly used to being the alpha male, swapped beds a few times and always found something to complain about. There was a Vietnamese lady on the bed next to him whose husband was on the opposite end of the bus and at 8pm the husband came over to give her some fruit and snacks. Xavi was not happy about these people eating on the bus and said: "Eef thay waaant too eeet thay mus go owtsyde, thees ees not a F##%g paatee, huh!". Colin and I gave him a pfft and pulled out our snacks too. Xavi changed seats one more time after this.
The drive was incredibly bumpy partly because the roads aren't great, but mostly because the bus driver was driving at such a speed that we were practically being thrown out of our beds. I was awake at a few points of the journey and couldn't believe how we were driving, you have to experience it to believe it. Not to mention the horn. He was beeping every 20 seconds or so even if there was no other traffic in the way. We got stopped by the police just 15km outside of Hue. We thought this was for speeding, but it was a routine stop to search some of the passengers on board.
We arrived in Hue at 10am and were brought to our hostel. We checked in and once again Portugal wasn't on the list of countries. I think I must be the first Portuguese person to visit Vietnam. We relaxed a bit and then went for a wander round the town before heading out for dinner. It's very humid here and we feel thirsty the whole time.
When we woke up this morning it was absolutely chucking it down, so we stayed in bed till the rain stopped and had a late breakfast. Nuno and Laurie-Shaun, you'd love their coffee, they give you condensed milk in your coffee rather than regular milk and sugar. Later we walked to the Citadal and through the Imperial enclosure. It reminded us a lot of a smaller version of the Forbidden City in China, but a lot of the buildings have been destroyed and damaged because of the war and natural disasters. This means it's nowhere near as busy as the Forbidden City, which made it great for taking photos and walking around peacefully. The funniest thing here was the fish. People were feeding them little cat pellets and these fish were jumping on top of and over each other to get the food. There were about 100 of them all scrambling towards the pellets even if it meant being out of the water for a few seconds - it was like fish crowd surfing.
We leave Hue at 8am tomorrow and head to Hoi An.