Hello! Motorbike?

We decided to get an open bus ticket to get us from Hanoi all the way to Ho Chi Minh City (with a few stops along the way). Our first experience of the night sleeper bus was not great (14 hours from Hanoi to Hue travelling on Vietnam's roads in a very small bed was not comfortable - particularly not for people over 5ft 4 e.g. Jon!!).

We arrived in Hue (pronounced ''Hway'') very tired so we had already decided not to do a lot, just maybe walk to the Citadel and then go back to the hotel and relax. The motorbike drivers of Hue obviously had other ideas and managed to persuade us to do a city tour - the sound of ''Hello! Motorbike?'' a common sound in Vietnam! We agreed a price per person up front and then had a lovely, if very hot, half day tour. We visited the Tomb of Khai Dinh, the Tomb of Tu Duc and the Thien Mu Pagoda, as well a place where women were making conical hats. Our tour ended at the Citadel.


Here came the first real scam attempt!! The very quiet driver suddenly came to life when we said ''140,000VND per person, so 280,000VND in total?"'. ''No, No 140,000VND per person for each place you visit - so 840,000VND in total''. He thought we were stupid obviously! A few raised voices followed and we walked away paying 400,000VND! Won't let that happen again!

During our 3 days in Hue we also arranged a private dragon boat tour down the Perfume River. A bit of a strange experience because the boat seemed to be somebody's house - but the views of life on and along the river were amazing.