About 6:55, Court barged into my room, carrying her backpack, followed shortly afterwards by Dana. They were staying in my room for tonight, since I had 3 single beds. I got up, and showered, then we went downstairs and had breakfast, and waited for the bus.
Bus came about 7:50, we got on, and it stopped at some other hotels, and then dropped us off at the river, and we got on a boat. 5 minutes later, we had to get off and get another a different boat. They always do this to us!
We left about 9:00. The river tour consisted of a boat ride up the river, with stops at temples and tombs for $1.50US (most people paid $2US, so we got a good price). The first temple was ok, but then things went downhill. Ends up, the river tour is just that, a tour of the river. It makes stops at these temples and tombs, but doesn't include entrance fee into them. And at at least two of them you have to hire a motorcycle to take you to the tomb or temple. The first tomb we stopped at, they wanted 20,000 dong for the 3km motorbike ride, we decided to do it, even though it was expensive by Vietnamese standards, and we got to the temple, and then, they wanted 44,000 dong to get into the tomb. That's when we realized that we were screwed. This was going to be the same at every place we went to. Most everyone on the tour was pissed off, because everyone was under the impression that it was all included. Needless to say, we didn't see much. And lunch sucked too, it was just lunch on the boat, cooked up by the family that owns the boat.
The only good part of the whole thing was the old man at the front of the boat. He looked like he was permanently stoned, and would light up a joint every once in a while. He was quite funny to watch. He was dressed in his pajamas all day too.
Finished the boat tour about 3:00, then I caught a cyclo tour of the old city for two hours (25,000 dong), and went inside the old city fortress. Cost me 55,000 dong, but it was worth it. It was the old city of Hue, and the American's bombed it flat in the Vietnam war, and this is simply the remains. Very interesting to see. It was a huge place too.
Back to the hotel about 5:00, showered and shaved, then we went for supper about 5:45 at the awesome shake place. I also mailed my postcards. Stamps are expensive here, 9000 dong for one to Canada, it cost me 90,000 dong to mail them all ($9CDN)! I had spaghetti at this shake place, and a dragon fruit shake. Dunno what dragon fruit is, but the shake was good! Spaghetti was cheap and good, and huge, only 15,000 dong.
Today was the first day we had a full day of sun in a long, long time! Well, around 6:00, we had a small shower, but the rest of the day was shiny!
Tomorrow we go off to Hoi An to buy some clothes!
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