Hué

It wasn't until gone 11am that we arrived in Hué on the bus. Feeling groggy we waited to get our bags whilst a Vietnamese man spoke very good English to us, asking questions about where we'd been so far and telling us how beautiful Vietnam is (I agreed mostly). He asked us where we were staying and when I showed him on a map he offered to take us there for a very reasonable price. My initial thought was he sounded very dodgy but Matt was still sleepy so followed the guy straight away. I couldn't exactly ditch him. Luckily, we arrived safe and sound after travelling only 5 minutes in a lovely air conditioned car. 

At our hostel (technically called a homestay but it seemed more like a hostel) we were given a cold glass of water and a banana for free as we waited for our room key and for the owner to book us a bus out of Hué in the morning. 

One cold shower later and we were out finding food for lunch. I braved it and went for kebabs which you had to wrap in rice paper with cucumber and bean sprout things before dipping in a peanut sauce. A little messy but delicious and so different to what I've been having (noodles, rice, noodle soup, noodles). 

We ventured across the river, a little more contently as we had food in our bellies, to find the citadel. After stupidly walking all the way round the inner palaces we entered them and had a look around. It was nice to see buildings that weren't perfect but still looked beautiful. Ruins lay between many of the gates, greenery growing around them. It was also quite peaceful (apart from the occasional Vietnamese tour). Many people have told us to not bother with Hué but we didn't want a bus journey that took any longer and it's quite a lovely looking place too. 

We walked through other parts of the city, especially along the river (known as the perfume river) which began to light up more at dusk and fill with lots of bats, flapping between trees. 

We chose a restaurant nearer the hostel for tea and I went for a Vietnamese special. Apparently it was a potato cake with various meats and a peanut sauce (an obsession has started). The potato cakes were more like soft tacos but inside was carrot, onion, shrimp and what I think was chicken. I was a little weary about the chicken but I'm still alive right now. Peanut sauce just makes everything taste even better than to begin with. A great day for food, especially because of the variety. 

I'm just going to quickly add (I had purposely forgotten about it the other day) when we were in Sapa we passed a hut with little puppies playing outside. They were adorable but I obviously stayed away (haven't had a rabies jab). However, I did notice blood on a puppy's head and so questioned it. The tour guide pointed to the open door to the hut where you could see a mama dog shape turning on a spit over a fire. The Vietnamese openly eat dog. It makes me feel sick every time I think of it. I really hope I haven't eaten any.