We spent the morning leisurely walking up hillsides (see below) and enjoying the tranquility after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. It was really nice to see the countryside of Vietnam and have a less touristy experience. The main attraction was the inland waterways of Tam Coc, which are enjoyed from a small rowing boat with the original technique of rowing by foot! We decided to take a boat and then saw with guilt the tiny frame of our oars-woman! We set off at a very slow pace and were overtaken by lots of other boats. I'm sure she was getting lots of comments from the other rowers along the lines of "unlucky, you got the big bloke" (sorry George). We felt so bad that we ended up helping her and grabbing the spare oars and joined in the rowing. The scenery was stunning as we floated up through the waterways flanked by huge limestone formations and paddy fields, it was definitely worth it.
That night, we had booked a sleeper bus for the journey down to Hue. We were shown lots of glossy pictures of the luxury seats which recline into a flat bed. Great we thought, a night's accomodation and a long journey in one! We boarded the bus and tried to get into our 'beds', which once you were in, resembled small coffins! They felt tight to me, so George had no chance! Amazingly we managed to sleep (in one fixed position only) and woke to the sound of classic 80s Vietnamese hits being blasted out at 6am! George has only just regained feeling in his toes, but at least we made it!
We were met in Hue by drivers from the hotel we had booked and expected them to show us to a bus or car, but instead, they led us to their motorbikes which they proceeded to strap our backpacks to and told us to jump on the back. After seeing the crazy driving in Hanoi, we were a little concerned, but lack of sleep made it hard to make any decisions so we thought what the hell and climbed on. It was amazingly safe and easy, so much so that we agreed to a motorbike tour of the city that day (sorry Mum & Dad!) The motorbike tour was so much fun and enabled us to see parts of Hue which we would never have reached on foot. We rode out through paddy fields to the country where we met some local women who showed us how to make rice - well actually she sang to us for the majority of the lesson - and to various Pagoads around the city. We strolled around the old Citadel, which was actually pretty sad - the once grand capital was in various states of ruin following the war and there isn't enough money currently to restore it. Our last stop was to a pagoda where we had the priviledge to watch monks chanting, which was really moving. We made it back to our hotel in one piece and George has now vowed to get a scooter when we get back to the UK!
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