Hue & Hoi An

Enda in Hue

My time here is becoming short and there is still a lot I want to see and do. Unfortunately, I can't spend more than a day in any one place, which is a bit upsetting.

After our tour of the DMZ, we took a late afternoon bus south into Hue and met the girls of our group. They had secured two hotel rooms for everyone, so we got cleaned up and went out for dinner.

I needed some time to myself so I went walking the streets of Hue for awhile before meeting back up with everyone at a bar called DMZ.

We had a few drinks on an outside patio and made conversation with a young local named Sin. He was maybe 13 years old and trying to act like an American hip-hop star. Very funny.

Our group had one day to poke around in Hue before catching another bus further south. There was not much to see in the downtown area, so we took a taxi 12km outside town to the tomb of Minh Mang.

Minh Mang was a ruler of Vietnam from 1820 to 1840. The buildings and architecture of the area were rumored to be majestic, but not too impressive for me. The many gardens and natural settings were stunning, though.

Afterwards, we decided the taxi ride back would be too expensive, so we chartered a slow ferry down the Perfume River. One of the positive things about traveling with a large group is that we can get great discounts in large numbers. The boat ride was nice and relaxing, but we were worried about missing our bus to Hoi An.


View from the boat


Olly checkin' it out

Turns out the afternoon bus to Hoi An was over an hour late, so we had plenty of time to kill in front of our hotel eating cheese sandwiches.

The bus ride south to Hoi An took about three hours and wove through some beautiful mountain scenery overlooking the ocean and the city of Da Nang.


Da Nang in the distance

We arrived in Hoi An about 6:30pm. If my mother were here, she would do cartwheels and flips worthy of the Athens Olympics. The buildings are all very old and reminded me of New Orleans, minus the balconies full of drunk people. Everywhere you look are tailor shops that make made-to-wear clothes in any design, color, or fabric imaginable. There were hundreds of these places down every street offering cheap custom made clothes.


Streets of Hoi An

It was a kind of paradise for the girls in our group, but aside from the old-style architecture and general welcoming feeling the locals gave off, it wasn't for me.

I spent one day shopping around town with Andy, Emma, James, and Nick. We had lunch in a really nice cafe down by the river, and afterwards everyone tried their hand at bargaining for something. I bought a beautifully hand-crafted dragon chop-stick set, while everyone else was buying hats, t-shirts, and sunglasses. Nick did his best to bargain for a pair of mismatched flip flops that actually had a price tag on them, but the stubborn old lady wouldn't drop the price for him. Very funny.

Later that night I broke our fellowship and caught a night bus to Nha Trang by myself. Due to my time constraints, I can't travel at the speed of the group and still accomplish everything I want to do. It was a sad time, but I know I'll see them all real soon.

Plus the beaches in Nha Trang were calling my name.