Hue in the rain

Overnight train
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we arrived in Hue (this is pronounced 'hway' apparently, and  not like the name of some posh bloke from chichester) at 8am this morning. i have a banging headache and its pouring with rain. Much like being back in england to be honest except not so cold. At least the hotel is nice and has a bath with (limited) hot water and french bread for breakfast. this afternoon we are walking into the citadel to visit the old half of Hue, in the rain, bleugh. may be forced to stay in the hotel and watch japanese mtv instead.

In Vietnam it rains...all the time
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Hmmmmm, i take back my earlier statement about the hotel in Hue as i got bed bug bites all over me the first night i stayed there and man was i pissed off although not as pissed off as my room mate when she was told theyd cleaned the room which turned out to mean theyd mad the bds which still had visible bugs crawling all ovr them, bleugh. it wasnt fun.

anyhow, we had a tour of the citeldl in the pouring rain and cold by a very happy chappy called phung which means 2 sides or somethings, not phoong which means leprosy apparently. he was very cool. Hue itself is much like any city in vietnam, lots of french style buildings, very colourful but nothing much to write home about. The next day however was fantastic because we got to take motorbikes into the countryside and see the villages. We saw the bunkers used by the americans, went and made incense, saw how a woman called tree with one arm made the ridiculous looking conical hats everyone in vietnam wears, visited one of the oldest chinese bridges to survive the war and hung out with the water buffalo in the rice fields. There was a lady on the bridge telling fortunes and so ive been told im going to marry twice, once for love and once for money, haha.i wont love the men that love me and ill have a son at 33 and marry again at 36 and have 2 children. All sounds very depressing although currently im in love with a tall man who is far away right now...any guesses who that might be would be gratefully appreciated because im unconvinced!

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the vietnamese countryside is beautiful and the rain makes it even more like you would imagine vietnam to be. the people in the countryside are extremely friendly and will bend over backwards to be nice, compared to the cities especially where people are the exact oopposite and wont even give you directions. The bike trip was definitely a highlight of the whole tour and i wouold advise anyone going to vietnem to gt out of the cities because your view of the country will be clouded otherwise.