Hoi An and Hue

After getting up from another sleeper bus we had arrived in Hoi An. We ended up finding a good hotel by the river which is always a plus. The town itself was really nice. The french colonial influence was very apparent. Most of the buildings used french style architecture. Many of them have seen better days but it still gave the town a really neat vibe. The majority of these buildings were filled with all sorts of shops. It felf very similar to Ubud, Indonesia. If you are in the market for custom shoes or anything made out of silk this should be your destination. Most of the sites to see were not big attractions. There is a Japanese style covered bridge that is neat but did not take a great deal of time to look at.
The two days we spent there were filled with checking out souvenir shops and trying food at this string of market type restaurants. The spring rolls at these stands were some of the best we have had so far. Also Hoi An is known for a special soup called Coa Lau. It was good but the spring rolls far superior. Our last night there we went out to a couple spots and played some pool.The next morning we were off to Hue.
The bus was left at 7:30 which was kind of a let down. It was supposed to only take four hours but it took a little longer and we ended up arriving around 1. The hotel we checked out first had a deal for us for free Internet and TV if we waited till five o'clock to check in. With very little hesitation we dropped our bags off and rented some bicycles. We road to check out the imperial citadel located in the middle of the city. It is under heavy restoration because it had been destroyed during the war. They have redone the citadel itself but the majority of the buildings are still under major construction. It was still pretty impressive though.After checking out the citadel we explored a market and biked around the city. By this time it was a little after 5 and we were able to check into our hotel. The room was sweet and had a computer inside (though it didn't work in the beginning). We chilled out in the room for a little while before getting ready to grab a bit to each. We found a pretty sweet spot on the river to have dinner. We were able to watch all these boats that you can rent in you want take people up and down the river. It would have been a sweet thing if you had big group a people to go with. Afterword we were pretty tired from the bus ride and biking around so we just went back to the room and slept.
Feeling inspired by our great biking performances the previous day we decided on not renting a motorbike to see the other cites and continue on bikes. Our goal for the day was to see a couple of the famous pagoda's and a tombs in the area. The first one we decided to check out was near the market we had looked at yesterday. So theoretically it should have been easy to find. However the map we had only had two roads while the actual intersection had three. This proved to be a little bit of problem and we ended up checking out all three of them before finding the pagoda. When we got their we realized why it was not that famous. It was pretty lame so we turned around and heading to one that was 4 km outside of town. We got there and it was much more impressive then the first one we saw. We walked around and saw the sites before deciding our next move. The map we had was a little sketchy but we figured we would be able to find our way to one of the tombs anyway. At first it was smooth sailing we easily found the bridge we were supposed to and even got to the roads leaving Hue. It was here that the map got a little weak. It just had two roads and symbols for the tombs. We asked for directions a couple of times and got different answers which was not very helpful. After biking a decent ways we found ourselves at a tombs. It was not the famous one we had set out looking for but it seemed to be worth checking out. The tomb was pretty cool and neat to see but nothing special. After walking around for a couple minutes we went to get a water.
It was here that the day took a dramatic turn. We had two options. One to continue to search for the famous tombs and pagodas in the area or head back. After some careful consideration we decided that going back and having a drink would be more beneficial then getting lost looking for tombs on the outskirts of Hue. After hanging out at the hotel for a bit we decided it was time to give the Hue night life another chance. We went to a couple bars and played some pool but there once again was not a whole lot going on. We got some food and headed back to the hotel. The next day was based around catching our night bus to Hanoi. During the day we hung out at the hotel and by the river. Then it was off to hopefully some colder temperature and Hanoi.

-WBM