Hue, Vietnam, Asia

We got up this morning and realized we’d slept later today than any other day of Dad’s visit. It was 7:15am and it was still pitch black in the room. They had some really good darkening shades in the room, so we weren’t disturbed at all. We were still early enough to watch the Sox lose another game to the Orioles before going to have our buffet breakfast in the restaurant by the pool. They had an omelet bar and a fruit platter, so I was a happy guy.

Unfortunately the weather god’s still weren’t helping us out, and it rained all morning. We walked into town to find an ATM for Dad and a travel agency for some info about leaving Hue and a boat to take in Halong Bay. We got some very helpful information from the travel agency, so we have a better idea of what we’re going to do when we leave here. We got back to the hotel, packed up our bags and got the shuttle into town. We were dropped off at a travel agency, which then had another van come and pick us up to bring us to the bus station where we boarded and headed north to Hue. We got really lucky with the bus, it had good air conditioning and it was only about half full. We had plenty of time to stretch out and the whole three hours was cool and comfortable.

We got into Hue at about 4pm and got a taxi over to Vina Hotel. It’s down a little side alley so it’s nice and quiet and the hotel is beautiful. The people working there are very nice, and it has all the modern conveniences we’ve been used to in hotels on this trip, for $11 a person per night. We had some more bad luck with the weather and it has continued to rain so we didn’t have a great night to go sightseeing. We were recommended a place for dinner called Hot Tuna, so we checked it out and tried some of the local cuisine. We have both found that the Vietnamese food is not bad, but somewhat tasteless. It’s not spicy like Thai food, and they don’t seem to use as many herbs or spices in their food. Regardless, we had a decent meal and then headed back to the hotel.

Dad went for a massage in the hotel but apparently got a masseuse who had never massaged before. He said it was a pretty awful 45 minutes, but luckily it only cost $10. We’re staying in for the rest of the night and we’re going to hope for better weather tomorrow. It’s our only full day in Hue, so we’re going to get out and see the sights.