To Halong Bay via Hue

We take the bus from Hoi An to Hue. After a 4-hour journey, we arrive in rainy Hue. To be honest, our hostel is pretty horrible. Due to the heavy rain, we didn't see much of the city. The next day was a bit better. It was cloudy in the morning and we were able to visit the citadel. [/uploads/3bdd8e30-ffb1-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/520c1d20-ffb1-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg] The Citadel of Hue was the former residence of the emperors of the Vietnamese Nguyen Dynasty in the former capital. The citadel contains an imperial palace modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. [/uploads/6f313430-ffb1-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/8af7f3c0-ffb1-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/a8b5ef70-ffb1-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/c3050320-ffb1-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg] In the evening, we took the night train to Hanoi, from where we continued by bus to Halong Bay. Our train was one hour late, which, as we were told by Yang, is quite normal. [/uploads/3043fd20-ffac-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg] [/uploads/3b0aee30-ffac-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg] The train station hall. Jakob had fun at the train station. [/uploads/45dfe900-ffac-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg]Jakob had fun at the train station.[/uploads/616559d0-ffac-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg]The train is coming!! [/uploads/800d8e70-ffac-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg]The train is coming!! Halong BayFirst, we check into our room. This time we even have a double room and we get to share it. The hotel is a bit old and not very clean, but we are only here for one night. The bay is a tourist hotspot, but there are few tourists here. There are many run-down hotels and construction sites for new huge hotel complexes. Countless restaurants and bars, but all empty and there aren't many food options besides Italian and Chinese. In the evening, loud music can be heard in the alley, but we hardly see any people on the street. Our suspicion that it is the off-season is denied by our guide. It's all a bit strange. But now we want to tell you about our visit to the bay. We took a 2-hour boat tour among the countless - actually 1969 - islands and visited a dry limestone cave.Our boat. [/uploads/220f2e20-ffaf-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg]Our boat. [/uploads/317263a0-ffaf-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg] [/uploads/10e0a720-ffb2-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/2902a1a0-ffb2-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/3e633230-ffb2-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/7b389f10-ffb2-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/e7a482e0-ffb2-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/cdf64310-ffb2-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg][/uploads/17abbd00-ffb3-11e8-aa1e-1183051103bc.jpeg_large.jpg] We had a nice day, but we must say that we expected more from Halong Bay. Tomorrow we will go to Hanoi, our last stop in Vietnam.