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Other entries in Huế

People here laugh at Crouch just like we do!

I got a really shite nights sleep on the bus due to the heat waking me up about 500 times sweating like a beast.  As a result, when the bus stopped somewhere for breakfast I just stayed on the bus and tried to get some more kip....but to no avail, great start to the day when I am only staying here for a day.

When we arrived I checked into the first hotel they stopped at and couldnt find my bag when they took them all of the bus.......only to find that they had put just mine in the hotel already for some reason....nevertheless quite annoying anyway.  Got a quick wash, cooled down a little bit and booked my bus ticket to Hoi An for the next morning.

I walked over the bridge towards the old walled city around midday and had aspot of lunch at a restaurant called Lac Thien which is run my a deaf mute family and Mr Lac.  I had some beef nem (spring rolls) and the local speciality banh khoai which is a kind of fried pancake - it was shit hot.

After lunch I had a potter down to the Imperial City only to be acosted by about a million cyclo drivers trying to persuade me that the area around the imperial city was much better - whatever.  They were nearly as annoying as the booksellers in Hanoi, but only you couldnt get away from them because they would just cycle alongside you even quicker.

I thought the Imperial City was really cool.  It was a bit like the Forbidden City in Beijing, but on a much smaller scale, less buildings, but not as tarted up.  they dont seem to preserve theor history as much here as in China, which always makes them look more impressive and more real - I actually prefer this place to the Forbidden City.  After this I had a short walk back to the hotel to rest for 45 minutes before I hired a motorbike and driver to take me around a few of the sights just outside of Hue.

First stop was at the Thien Mu pagoda which came complete with a really drunken tramp lying in the middle of the courtyard.  It was just the same as every other pagoda I had ever seen and I got bored really quickly and decided to move on to the next sight.

We then drove through some of the scruffier areas of Hue on the outskirts of the city to Emperor Tu Doc's tomb.  It was really interesting to get out of the city centre and see how real Vietnamese people live.  The temple complex was really impressive with its lake and waterways seperating a series of three tombs in their crumbling state.  In total I spent about an hour exploring this area before I decided it might be a good idea to leave in order to see some other stuff before it got dark.

Next was the Tu Hiou pagoda, which was really small and full of German tourists for some reason so I gave it five minutes of my life and headed on to the next sight - the Temple of Heaven.  Now, you ight think that something going by the name of Temple of Heaven would be fairly impressive - how wrong you would be.  This is possibly the crappest temple I have ever visited in my entire lifetime.  Basically is was just a big square wall with a big circular wall in the middle with nothing else!  How fucking shite.  i dont even know how they can call it a temple.  One other thing, at every single sight, I bumped into the same two blonde girls which was kind of weird.

When I got back I headed out to burn another 300 plus pictures on to CD ready to send home before going to the local Indian restaurant for a chicken madras....mmmmmm.  So good - butstill not spicy.  When I had just received my food, you will never guess who walked in, yep, the two blonde girls.  I chatted a bit of shite to them and then headed back to the hotel to finish off another book.  It sa shame that the guys arent here with me, because I had the opportunity to have a five course snake banquet for $20 per cobra - which would have fed three people.  Never mind eh - i'm sure i will get another opportunity.

Later that night I found that they were showing the Liverpool versus Villa game in my hotel, so I went downstairs to watch it with a few of the locals and lo and behold, as soon as Peter Crouch entered the playing field, they all burst out laughing!!!  Peter Crouch is truly now a global laughing stock!!!

I hit the sack about 11pm as I had to be up early for my bus to Hoi An the next day.

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