VIETNAM - Hue - Part 3

My last day in Hue I was going to explore the Imperial City which is a large square enclosure where the royals lived in. I walked from my hostel which they told me it was too far, and it wasn’t. I don’t think they know what they are taking about shre because I found all the sights on my own without a tour guide and I had the best time. HA! I’ll show them... Outside the wall is a large flag tower that just looked like a big black box with a flag on top, not hard to miss. Past the wall I entered the city and bought my ticket. Pretty much just your usual facade with buildings, temples, and Padogas. It was really pretty and peaceful though. Being closed off from the bustling city was nice and there where huge grass areas between all the buildings. What was fun about walking around in here was to read simotanously about Vietnam’s history, and reading about each building. I liked this better than a tour guide telling me less in bad English. I read and walked a lot but it was nice, also it was Valentine’s Day! After exiting I walked around town a bit and explored the food market which was much different from other cities. I walked across the bridge and sat down on a bench to look at the river. Beautiful sunny day all to myself! I picked up my book and read the entire history of Vietnam right there, also treated myself to cold fresh vanilla icecream in honor of Valentines Day. I love myself for taking me on this trip! I then had to go back and pack my things to catch a bus to Phong Nha. And here’s where the Day era interesting... i was supposed to be picked up at 4 at the hostel. At 4:30 i got picked up and on the way more passengers join. And actually I ran into a girl that I met back in Hoi An! So we talked and caught up on our travels. We were ready to take the journey to Phong Nha but then we stopped and got out on the side of the road with our luggage. Confused at what was happening we just stuck with the crowd and hoped for the best. Around 6 at night, yes we waited an hour, another man named Luca joined us. He was a funny man from Florence Italy. Laughing and talking we sat on the curb waiting for a bus. People came and went, same with buses. None of them we going to Phong Nha though! The sun set and we were all getting tired of waiting. Is 3 we’re the only ones left and still no sign of a bus. It was really funny because a random lady came and sat down in Luca’s seat when he got up to buy a beer. She was dressed in all hot pink and was sitting really close to me and Elise. All we could do was laugh at our unfortunate situation. Finally, at 9 the bus came to take us. 5 hours later from when I thought I was going to leave. But considering it was almost “Tet” or Chinese New Year, everything was shutting down. The bus was nice, seats were like beds because it was a sleeper bus. But the ride was only 3 hours so it wasn’t that bad. Once we arrived in phong Nha we all were staying at the same hostel! A short walk and we all checked in and went to bed. All three of us decided to take a tour and get breakfast together the next day. Phong Nha here we come!