Nightbus + Hue

Noooobad mitanand.

Sorry not sorry for not getting back to you yesterday, we were once again in a vehicle all night and all evening.

Yesterday we got up quite late, packed and showered, and then went for breakfast. After that, we strolled through Hanoi again, looking for some decent make-up for Jasna. We quickly found what we were looking for and then sat down in a café. Lara only had tea, as she had stomach cramps all night 🙄 the evening before we had burgers 🍔 and fries 🍟 , so very greasy- and apparently her stomach didn't agree with it. But a day later (which is now), everything is fine. Finally, one of us has the problems that everyone warned us about 😂

Well, because of that, yesterday was quite chill, as the stomach cramps continued until the evening. We looked for some food for Jasna. While we were sitting there, we were approached by two English guys. There were two people on that party boat the night before who we couldn't stand. And who did we see standing right in front of us in the middle of Hanoi? Of course, those two. 🙄 Well, we survived 😂

and then around 5 PM we headed to the bus station. Shortly before 6 PM, our long-awaited night bus finally arrived. It was more comfortable than we thought, but a bit of a problem for Jasna because of her height. There were three rows of beds, each with a lower and an upper level. We had two beds on the upper level, which turned out to be good because of the ventilation above us. Well, we set off in a semi-lying position. We spent 13 hours on the bus 🙄🥺 but both of us managed to sleep relatively well, with the occasional toilet and snack break. At precisely 7:05 AM, we arrived in Hue and could leave the bus behind us. Thank goodness the hotel was only about 50 meters away, so we didn't have to travel halfway around the world with our bags. Besides, it was a sweltering 27.5 degrees at 7:15 AM in the morning. We went to the hotel, where we could use a bathroom, change clothes, and have breakfast.

After that, we set off. Hue has around 300,000 inhabitants and is relatively quiet. The traffic is not too crazy, the air is fresh compared to Hanoi, and the people are much more relaxed. There are many rivers running through the city, which is about 15 km from the coast.

We went to the "imperial city" - something like the Forbidden City in Beijing, but in Hue. It served the same purpose as the Forbidden City, but it's a bit smaller and not as heavily restored. We like it better than the one in Beijing.

After that, we went to a café and then wanted to go to a pagoda, but we couldn't find it. On the way back, we went through the market - and omg. We have rarely seen anything so disgusting. Half-dead animals, meat with flies on the floor - stinking fish.... Later we found out that even the locals only buy fruits, vegetables, and spices here. And we know why 🤮🤢

Well... we then wanted to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible, finally check in. The heat, lack of sleep, and hardly any food took such a toll on us that we almost both crashed at the same time.

The room is amazingly big and clean - thank goodness, once again just for us 😍😂

After showering and sleeping (we really both didn't feel great), we finally left the house again at 6 PM to go out and eat. Vietnamese food is really recommended 😍 We actually wanted to go to the night market on the promenade, but we didn't get any further than the promenade. We were approached by so many young Vietnamese girls, asking if we could speak English with them as practice. One of them even recorded us - it was a university assignment 😂 and gradually there were so many of them that we had to stop after about 1 hour and leave. It was really nice and beautiful and all, but yeah. People are just people - and too many of them are simply borderline 🙄🙄😂 but it's a good deed of the day and all......

After that, we went to a bar. But when a guy came who just wanted to sell gum and then pulled out his private parts in front of the table next to us (and the annoying girl next to us imitated goat noises), we just wanted to get away.

At 11 PM, we were back at the hotel and can now peacefully fall asleep 🙄😂

Otherwise, Hue is a really beautiful city, our hotel is right on the bar street, which is closed to traffic on weekends from 7 PM onwards and becomes a party mile.

They set up speakers everywhere, where you can sing karaoke (and yes, they really do it here) and dance. Finally, a real holiday feeling here with 30 degrees and palm trees.

Crazy world 🗺 🌍

Tomorrow we will rent scooters and explore Hue.