Hoi An.... and back to Hue...

January 23-29, 2011.
Ah, the middle point of the adventure.

We made it to Hoi An around January 23rd.....the days there were all fabulously charming and relaxing.

The four days we spent drinking lattes and strolling the picturesque streets all run together. I suppose one remembers angry sleeping men on buses with more detail. Nevertheless, we were ready for an adorable little haven like Hoi An, and some much needed delicious (non-instant!!) coffee couldn't have (finally) come at a better time.

You get "trapped" with all of the other tourists... and yes, even I succumbed to the pressure of the 1,385 custom tailor shops (that number is one I've just made up). That latte perked me up and made me feel like buying a little something perty just for me. (I accidentally got a slightly lower price for a dress of much less quality, but I'll blame the language barrier..) We discussed the possibility of skipping Laos and seeing the rest of southern Vietnam so we didn't have to make the same bus trip back where we came from, Hue. On a trip this long (and sometimes arduous) you never look forward to feeling like you're moving backwards as opposed to continuing on your path.

We decided we'd relaxed at riverside restaurants with 30 cent beers enough nights, and we were looking forward to all of the adventures we were sure to find in Laos.

So we hopped back on the loud yellow honking bus to Hue.

And when we finally arrived in Hue.. (6 hours later?) it was still raining. Much more heavily. And it was dark. And they'd decided not to take us to town, but to the confusingly located bus station where the Hotel pushers were waiting for us with free minibus rides to their "best price!" location.

After stepping in 3 separate ankle deep puddles, we hopped in a mysterious minibus with the most aggressive hotel salesman/woman. Thankfully, we ended up near where we wanted to be and the hotel room (though up 5 extremely long flights of stairs) was decent enough (American Idol marathon channel? So be it..)

After a chilly night under two blankets, (the room didn't get above a balmy 30 degrees..) we ventured into the rain to find the citadel.
It was a wet citadel experience:


Pretty neat. We walked through the emperor's forbidden purple palace (for a fee and no pictures allowed) where they showed a funny dvd of CGI re-enactments of events that took place there such as: an elephant killing a de-clawed tiger.

brr.

A Citadel Bat

We wandered this historic area, which was much larger than you'd think -- enclosed by two moats. Pretty cool.


We explored our fascinating surroundings... until we realized once your reach your threshold of cold and wet-ness, fascinating surroundings stop being fascinating. So we began the long, wet, cold trudge back to our American Idol marathon room.


We attempted to book our bus to Laos (which we heard would be the most difficult transit of all), and learned it only left every 3 days and was sold out for that day. We also learned we no longer had enough American dollars to buy our visas. Then we learned (after withdrawing 10 million dong and walking through the pouring rain for hours to 11 different banks around the city) "no one in the entire country" will ever exchange dong for dollars. So we felt a bit lost and trapped. Should we stay in rainy Hue for another 2 days with no guarantee of being able to purchase our Laos visa with dong? And even if we could, would we ever be able to exchange our millions of dong to riel or dollars in the part of Laos we were headed -- where we read there are ATMS or banks?

We decided to throw up our hands and give up on Laos. Quite the bummer. "Staying flexible" isn't always easy. The only other option was to travel south, to exit Vietnam into Cambodia before transit shut down for their New Year (TET).

The trains were all already sold out what with all the new year travelers. So we had to buy the next sleeper bus out. The first leg of the journey?
The same bus. Again. Third time. Right back to Hoi An. (We knew we shouldn't have left those perfectly steamed lattes).
Back in Hoi An, we'd wait 10 minutes & hop on the sleeper bus down to Nha Trang. We had to de-bus again and continue on the third bus all the way to Saigon.

In Hue, they predicted we'd arrive in 23 hours.
Stay tuned for details on the next 32 hours of my life - on to one night in Saigon...