Our destination was Hue and it took three and a half hours in this cramped form of travel to reach it.
We opted for the lonely planet recommended hotel called the Thai Binh II and although it was relatively clean and reasonably priced at US20 per night we think we might have found better if we had looked around near the Thai Binh I. Hue was much more tourist oriented than any other regional cities we have visited so far. This is to be expected as it offers tourists much choice of sites to see. I opted for a tour into the demilitarized zone with Henry for the sole purpose of visiting the Vinh Moc tunnels. These tunnels were home to 300 people during the war. They were used to smuggle guns from the South Chine Sea into the war zone. The tunnels had three levels, 15 meters, 18 meters and 25 meters for bomb shelter. The family rooms consisted of 2x2 meters there was one well and one toilet for everyone. The consistency of the tunnel walls was like chalky mud. The integrity of the surface was identical to that of the war. The rest of the tour was not very good as it was raining and the bus windows were all fogged up. I am glad I chose only day tour. AT lunch we were put on a local bus from Dong Ha back to Hue. This was a 12 seater minibus. But 12 is just a guide for the Vietnamese, and the driver managed to cram 18 into it at one stage.
The following day we hired 2 tuk-tuks and were ridden around the old Citadel of Hue and taken to the Thien Mu Pagoda. The citadel was built in the 1800's and has a 2 meter wall thick wall 10kms in circumference. The buildings inside were almost totally destroyed during the war and the Vietnamese government is only slowly now rebuilding the monuments inside. The Thien Mu Pagoda is built on the Perfume river and is a lovely stone pagoda but the highlight of the pagoda was meeting 5 little children who were playing with our kids. Later they asked for money to buy food. They looked relatively well off and when I gave them the equivalent of $2Au their eyes lit up. If it was shared and lollies were bought it made our day.
Of course we negotiated the price for the Tuk-Tuks the day before but when it came time to pay they tried to scam us for twice the amount. You really need to have a good sense of humour and stick to your original price. Eventually all is sorted and everyone is happy. But if this kind of behaviour upset you then this is not the place for you.
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