Today the train pulls into Hue Station at a bright 8.30am and I ignore/walk/barge past the army of taxi drivers and hotel touts who are standing outside. A walk into the centre of town and scour of the places that I could possibly sleep in and after looking at four hotels I settle for a $5 dollar double bed, which isn't too bad value at all.
Hue is all about ancient ruins and the capitol of old, so I hit up the ruins and have a look aroun
d, but it is in a seriously desperate state. Most of the old Imperial City was destroyed during wars or natural disasters and no one seems to have worried about repairing them, so all in all there isn't that much to see apart from some ruins and large open spaces where buildings should be. The architecture of the restored sections though are very nice and some of the garden spac
es still manage to retain some of there charm. Overall today is a day of wandering and when night falls my wandering turns into avoiding the constant calls of "where you go?, motorbike?" and when I decline the offer of a lift it moves on to "Marijuana?", "Women?", "Men?", at every street corner there seems to be a bike driver who doubles up as a pimp and drug dealer. My trip so
far in Vietnam has been interesting. Although I have only been here for a week, I can say that I take Vietnam as a bad version of China. The people hassle you so much more and try and cheat you out of money at every turn or fool you into paying extra for everything. People at Ha Long Bay paid $78 for the same tour as me and I only paid $40, even from the same hotel a girl pai
d $42 compared to my $40. If you try and buy any local food, you will get an inflated price that is more than double the rate that locals pay. Hopefully it will pick up and as I travel further south it will all get better.. I've booked my ticket home today and will be heading home on the 2nd November, so not long to go. It's a sad thought to think it will all be over soon, but new adventures will be just around the corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment