Hue (and pictures!)

Hello everybody!

Sorry this morning I couldn't write anything in English, because the cleaning lady was waiting for me to leave the room, so I left after finishing the dutch part..

The day before yesterday I was going for dinner in the evening, but I during the taxi ride from the station I had not paid any attention to where we were going, so I had no idea how to get from my hotel in the centre.. (I forgot to ask for a map..) So, I turned right after leaving the hotel. Bad idea.. I didn't find any restaurants over there, just some small ones that looked quite dirty.. I turned right again at the main road, and then right again on another main road. Still no centre, but I found a nice korean restaurant to eat. The food was good, but sooooo spicy!! Chili everywhere.. And there were some men staring at me from outside which I didn't really like, more because I didn't know exactly where I was and how to return to the hotel.. Luckily quite soon after leaving the restaurant I found the river and from there I knew which way to go to the hotel! It turned out that I walked all the way around the centre, but I didn't enter it haha!

Yesterday morning I went to the Citadel of the city, whic was very very beautiful! Many palaces and nice decorated gates.. And it was so nice and quiet to walk there.. There were just a few tourists, so at some parts I felt like it was just me visiting the citadel at that moment. On the road I get crazy of all motorbike-taxi drivers that are at every corner, shouting at me: 'motorbike', 'lady, motorbike', 'darling, motorbike', ' baby, motorbike', 'lady motorbike, where you go, lady, where you go now, you go market, motrobike?'. Aaaargh, soooooo annoying!!!! Just let me walking without saying anything, please.. On the way back from the citadel I met two dutch people that I met in the transsiberian and in Beijing as well, which was a really nice surprise to see them here in Hue! They just arrived by nightsleeper bus, which they couldn't recommend me, because the beds are just too small for europeans.. They're just fine for small vietnamese people haha.. I was still doubting about taking a sleeperbus from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, but they made me decide not to take it;-) On the way back to the hotel I also found a real supermarket!! O, I was soooo happy!!! Because I didn't find any yet in Vietnam, and I thought they might just not exist.. So I bought some drinks and sweets, quite a lot, and just for 5 euros:-) Everything is so cheap here! That's what I like most about Asia, that you can buy eveythign without having to worry about prices..

Yesterday evening I took the other way to find a nice place to eat. I thought I found a good restaurant.. When I sat on the table I saw some dead cockroaches under an other table, and that made me think about the reviews I read about Vietnam, that it's full of cockroaches.. I was thinking that probbaly they were exaggerating, because except of the small coackroaches in the train, and one in my bathroom in Hanoi, I didn't see a lot of them.. Exactly at that moment I discovered a huge cockroach on the wall!! And when it started flying around I got crazy!! I really really hate cockroaches, I'm so afraid of them! I even prever the big spider that I saw in the hostel in Guilin! So I started looking around in the restaurant and saw lots of huge cockroaches flying around aaaaaaa!!! I never finished my food that fast!! I really wanted to leave as soon as possible.. But no, it was late, one of the cockroaches decided to fly around me (why not around anyone else stupid cockroach!!) and to land on my table and walk at my bag.. Great!! I was almost running away!! The staff of course were apologizing to me haha.. They couldn't help that I'm that afraid of cockroaches.. The waitress even asked me if I wanted a dessert, now what does she think?! The only thing I wanted was leaving that restaurant!!! Horrible...

Today I just went for a walk because I had to leave the room for the cleaning lady haha.. This city is tooooo boring!!! There's nothing to do here:-( It's like a big village or something pfff.. There is a beach about 10 kilometers from here but it's raining so not the best weather to be at a beach.. And there are some tombs just out of the city, but I'm a little bored to visit them.. But because I still had two days left here I booked a tour to the demilitarized zone for tomorrow.. Will be interesting I think! But it leaves at 6AM, pfff, toooo early haha! I'll have to go to bed early tonight! Now I'm just relaxing in the hotel room,which is actually very nice to do!! I wouldn't have any problem to do this for 2 or 3 days;-) Just some surfing on the internet, watching tv, laying down on the nice soft bed:-)

I'll leave here in thursday by bus.. The choice was either 8AM either 2PM.. Not that difficult for me:P So I'll leave at 2PM and it will just be a 3 hour ride to Da Nang. In Da Nang I'll stay for 2 nights, to go on a day tour to Hoi An from there.. After I'll go to Ho Chi Minh City, but I'm still not sure whether to take an overnight train (20 hours) or a flight (1hour,15minutes).. There's just a small price difference, but I have fear of flying, but fear of cockroaches as well!! If they could guarentee me that there would not be any cockroaches in the train I would take that, but now I'm thinking maybe a flight will be better..

Kisses, Patty