Hue - Hoi An

Day 40: We EVENTUALLY pulled up at Hue at 10am - PRAISE ZE LORD! Cruised the streets, booked a "city and countryside" motor bike tour for the following day.

Day 41: Fantastic day. Cruising around the 'city and countryside' on the back of motorcycles. Saw some truly amazing relics of kingkoms from kings and emporers from dynastys gone by. Fantastic way to see Hue.
Went out for our first western meal in over a month... Pizza, pasta and salad never tasted so good. A local artisan made the most of our slightly vodka-illubricated brains to sell us 4 paintings we really don't need [don't worry Dad, they roll up really small and will only be in your ["our..."] shed for 12mths max!] Had a good chat to a Nigerian-born Londoner who has recently travelled through Afghanistan.

Decided to take a cyclo back to hotel - once we were out of site of the local police, we made our drivers jump in the seat and raced each other back to the hotel - we were soon to discover that cyclos are in fact, harder to steer than they apppear, and that the breaks really don't do much to actually assist in the stopping of a cyclo... Anyway - point of the story. I won. Stoked. Not that it mattered of course...

Day 42: Sorry - did I mention that "I" won they cyclo race??.. Boarded a mini bus for what should have been a quick 2hr drive south to Hoi An. Problem is, that the "wiley Vietnamese" like to have as many unnecessary stop-offs as possible to maximise the chance of tourists dispensing with as many Dong as possible...

So, we made a couple of much longer than necessary "short brakes" - one of which however was actually pretty groovy I must say. A massive cave with morbid decorations. A bit freaky and not something I'd normally go for, but it was very unique.

We eventually rolled into Hoi An where we conducted our usual "post-disembarkment routine": - Wander around with our backpacks until we can't sweat anymore and check in somewhere.

- Peel off our sweaty clothes [sounds erotic I know - Rowan has the pole dancing action down packed by now],

- Shower.

- Sleep.

- Eat.

- Summon the energy to get out and explore.

A bit over the touring thing, we decided to skip the "boat trip" and "meet the village people" [they don't seem to wear cop, indian and workmen outfits here] and do our own thing while in Hoi An. So we hired pushbikes and rode to the beach a few kilometres away.

My goodness, those bikes are no other than dodgyness on wheels. Funny though - I eventually got used to having to point the handle bars in a north-west direction in order to proceed forward, and even the 'squeak... squeak... squeak' or Row's pedal seemed to fade into the horns and "excuse me sirs" background after a while. Picture is of us and our bikes [my chain is broken... & I'm wearing one of my tailored dresses I got made!]

Treated ourselves to a rather gourmet dinner that night at a beautiful restaurant where it was just us and 4 Vietnamese eating, surrounded by at least 15 waiting staff. A sumptuous "vietnamese-style-tappas" meal was enjoyed with a pint of ye old local ale. Upon walking home we came across a funky outdoor "tea house". They love their tea and coffee here. The air was filled with Vietnamese pop, interspersed with the occassional 80s/90s hits such as Especially for You [Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue] - which kept us grooving along to our iced coffees with rum [not me of course... I wasn't grooving... and I wasn't having rum in my iced coffee... I hate Kylie, and I certainly don't condone the consumption of alcoholic beverages]...