Huế

The night bus to Hue from Hanoi was actually pretty good, better than buses in Thailand, the layout is different with a single story bus with upper and lower bunks. As I am small I fit into the Vietnamese seat/beds ok but if you are quite tall though it may be a diffrent story. We arrived at 9ish dropped right outside Hue Backpackers which looked alright so we took it, a bit pricier than Hanoi but still cheap. It was here we spent three nights in total to explore the city. The first thing I did in Hue was buy myself a motobike, it was something I had planned on doing with the intention of driving it to Saigon and I had an idea of $250 in my head (the going rate according to fellow travellers). After some bargaining with the dealer this is what I paid but perhaps rather hastily. The bike (like 99% of bikes in Vietnam) are banged up Hondas but they still go well, the dashboard didnt work but I got him to fix a few bits up, obtained the green registration card without signing anything and the bike was legally mine. Thats how it works here, so long as you have the registration card the bike is yours.  You legally need a Vietnamese license to drive in this country but unlike Thailand they dont pull foreigners over, and if they did so long as I produced the registration its a simple 'fine' to be on my way. I was somehwat gutted with the bike when after just a few hours of having it my shift changer bolt snapped but was fixed immediately for less than a dollar buy someone on the side of the road, I also took it to a diffrent mechanic who done an oil change and checked everything else over for me, again this cost just a few dollars so all wasnt so bad.

Hugo whom I'd been travelling with has a profile on coachsurfing.org which he used to meet up with Hana a local Vietnamese girl who kindly took time off from work to show us around her city. She took us to some of the major tourist attractions as well as another place a bit further away which was a spectacular religious grounds with amazing gardens walkways and bridges,  it was very peaceful here. She also took us to dinner where the locals hangout and we enjoyed some delicious food. Our evenings in Hue we spent drinking at the hostel and hitting the local night club which was a great laugh.

This post is very short as I am incredibly behind on my writing and need to get up to speed. Hue was a cool city but specifically the best part about it was Hana showing us around, she even bought Fai a small present. She was very kind indeed. My bike after the visits to the mechanic seems to be staying alive and now Dan, Lex and I were to drive south to Hoi An via the famous Hai Van Pass.