**For your info, Hue is pronounced Way in Vietnamese!
When we got back from Ha Long bay we headed back to our hotel because we had made a reservation. Turns out the girl didn't keep our reservation, and didn't even bother telling us that there wasn't a room when we tried to reserve. She was super pissed that we booked our tour with another company instead of with her at the hotel desk, so I guess this was her way of getting back at us. Luckily the hotel has a sister hotel just down the road that had a room available. It was the same price, but way less clean. The guy from the hotel told us that they had WiFi and it turned out that it was someone elses' in the area and the hotel guy had "forgotten" the password. Then they said that a complimentary breakfast was served from 7:30-9am. We made our way down there for 8am and there was no breakfast to be seen. It was another guy at the desk and he pretended to not know what we were talking about. So frustrating.
Joey and I spent our last day in Hanoi with our Scottish pals. Jamie was still sick so we kept him company in the hotel room. Joey, Lindsey and I let Jamie sleep for a while and went to Happy Hour across the street at Magnolia Cafe. We should have taken the hint when we saw absolutely NO ONE in there that place was a crock. The sign outside said 3 drinks for price of 2. Sweet 3 of us, only gotta pay for 2. So we ordered 3 beers. It didn't help that our server didn't know English and just nodded when we asked about Happy hour. When we went to go pay, all of a sudden they are saying it's only from 4-6pm (It's like 6:05 when paying) and that it was only for a special type of drink not the beers we had.
After dinner at another place it was time for Joey and I to make our way to the train station. We hailed a taxi. We negotiated 30,000 VND for the trip which was more than reasonable. The driver takes us to somewhere completely different, and then goes the long way to the station. When we arrive Joey hands him a 50,000 bill, and the driver will only give us 10,000 back because he had to drive around longer to get us to the station. Joey kept on saying "It's your fault you went the wrong way. Give me back 20,000!" We just got so sick of it that we settled with 10,000 for the change. Joey said "You are a bad man!" which I thought was hilarious. It still annoys me to think about how this guy ripped us of. We learned a lesson though. Never give them the money until you see they have the right change in their hand.
The night train to Hue was horrible. We got soft sleepers this time, but it didn't help that when we first stepped on to the train we saw cockroaches climbing up the walls. Joey nearly puked in his mouth. As we looked for our beds we were serenaded by music that could induce a brain hemorrhage. It was so loud and blood curdling high pitched. There was no way of getting rid of it. The train ride itself was incredibly bumpy. Bumpy ride + fear of cockroaches + snoring Vietnamese man = no sleep for us.
We arrived in Hue this morning. There was a cute man waiting for us with sign saying Joey and Skye. He was from the hotel we are staying at which includes the free service of pick up from the train station. It was actually quite nice to have someone waiting for us on arrival, even though he was just our cab driver :)
Our hotel is quite nice. The room is nothing special but we get free coffee and tea all day, free breakfast and dinner... and the lady at the front desk is THE CUTEST lady I have ever met. Seriously so cute. High pitched voice, always laughing, and says exactly whats on her mind. The best thing of all, she doesn't try to push tours on us.
We walked around the streets of Hue. It's definitely not as busy here and it's also a lot more pedestrian friendly. The scenery is quite nice too with a river running through the city, and a huge citadel across the water way. We really like it here so far. It's such a nice change of pace.
For lunch we went to Lac Traun's which is a restaurant owned by a deaf mute. It is a restaurant that is highly recommended by Lonely Planet, and you can tell it's loved by many others because all the walls inside had writings from other travelers. The food was amazing.
Now Joey and I are just taking it easy for the night at our hotel. Going to eat some dinner downstairs, then watch a movie in our room. We're both super exhausted from no sleep on the train, and from all the exercise we've been getting. We will also be choosing what we want to do tomorrow. We are thinking we will take a tour to the DMZ (de militarized zone). Hue saw a lot of the fighting in the Vietnam war and there is a lot of museums and war stations we can see on this tour. It will only cost us $10 to do a full day tour including lunch and access to all the war stuff.
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