HA NOI

DAY 1:

After a terrible night on the sleeper bus, we were looking forward to getting to our hotel room and crashing out. Lucky for us the hotel had our room ready for us by 10am instead of us having to wait until check-in time at 2pm. We got to our very lovely room and fell asleep until early afternoon. Mrs F woke up feeling a bit unwell and slightly sick, so we went out for a walk into town in search of lunch. 

Feeling slightly better after lunch, we walked around to the lake where we saw The Thang Long Water puppet Theatre. As the water puppet show is highly recommended by fellow travelers and Trip Adviser, we decided to go and see the 6:30pm showing. We have to say that the whole show is massively over-rated! The best thing about the whole show was the music band and found lots of people had fallen asleep. Was good to say we had seen it, but was expecting alot more than it was :-(

View from where we had lunch....The streets of Han Oi.....

Our walk around the lake.......

Unfortunately for most people in the theatre, pictures weren't coming out very clear.....

After the puppet show, we walked to a hotel that has a rooftop bar with a 360' view of Han Oi before heading back to our hotel for dinner.

    

HA NOI

DAY 2:

Bad start to the day for Mrs F, who was up during the night with stomach pains and being sick, blaming it on the greek salad that she had for dinner the night before :-(

After feeling slightly better, we done our usual and went for a walk around Ha noi in search for its points of interest. Our first stop, as always, was St Josephs Cathedral. Unfortunately it was closed, so from there we went to the famous 'Hoa Lo Prison' also known as 'The Han Oi Hilton' for prisoners of war.

......A part of Han Oi that was bombed during the war

After the prison, we walked to see the opera house before stopping for a couple of cold drinks. After that we headed back to the hotel as Mrs F was starting to fell unwell again.

All afternoon, Mrs F had bad really bad stomach pains and sickness, so no longer thinks it was the greek salad, but possibly a viral infection. We did plan to go out to a recommended curry place in the evening, but Mrs F couldn't leave the room, so Mr F went out to get a pot a pringles for his dinner !

           Opera House....

     Mr F with a Han Oi beer....

Saw this on way back to hotel....not sure who it is though!?
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HUE
DAY 3:

Our last day in Hue, we took a stroll to Notre Dame Cathedral which was really lovely and big inside. Then we went to The Backpackers Hostel to load up on lunch before our 14hr sleeper bus journey to Han Oi. Mr F had a huge bowl of chips and Mrs F had a huge chicken burger and chips.....and ice cream after!

We went back to the hotel to have a shower before going to our sleeper bus. We were at th very back where 5 people can sleep next to each other - Mrs F was by the window with Mr F on her right, who had a woman on his right. Mrs F was a bit concerned that Mr F would cuddle up to the wrong woman during the night! Next to her was a guy who snored very loudly....ALL NIGHT!! We tried throwing rolled up tissue at him but he didn't budge - even when we went over harsh bumps it didn't disturb him! Needless to say we didn't sleep much at all.

   
Mr F with our day sack......

This was undergoing construction work......don't know what it was though!

Mrs F saying goodbye to Hue in a kimono loaned for free by our hotel

Our home for the next 14hours!

And Muggles and Buggles met a new friend....

VERDICT OF HUE:
Mr F: For me, 2 days was enough - met some good people and saw some beautiful things. Unfortunately it's a 14hour bus journey from Hue to Han Oi.

Mrs F: Hue was definitely a backpackers hang out. Good to go along the river and see some lovely scenery and met some nice people. Really liked to Cathedral but hated the journey to Han Oi!