Bye Beautiful Halong Bay!

Hanoi> Da Nang (central Veitnam) Flight = $23

$23! Suck it, over night buses!

We spent the night in Da Nang, and awoke early the next morning to catch a bus to Hue.

The bus we traveled on just so happened to be an over night bus…

It was pretty comfortable, and thankfully, the journey was only two hours.

OK WE MADE IT TO HUE

We dumped our backpacks off at the Hotel that we, ourselves had been dumped off from the bus (ok, this goes against the usual “Travel Tips” spheal, buttt we were on time restriants and it met all our criteria (it was clean, good location, and breakfast included) = OK THATS SETTLED LETS GO RENT MOTTOS.

We rented the crappiest  mottos they would rent us (The rental places kept asking us where were were going/would charge more if we said we were going out of city limits) We found this perculiar.

 

Hue is a popular starting point to riding motorbikes through a very scenic highway known as the Hai Van Pass (more on this later) We figured the Owners were referring to the Hai Van Pass and hesitant to rent the Motor Bikes for this reason, maybe?

Anyway, crap boxes Motor Bikes rented. OK-  lets spend 3 hours on them to get to the Vinh Moc Tunnels!

The Vinh Moc Tunnels are a series of elaborate underground tunnels that a village of nearly 200 people lived in during the Vietnam war.

They had hospitals, kitchens, and even ventilation systems. One tunnel lead out all the way to the sea:

Families would live in tiny, cramped quarters (like a 5 x 7 foot space with the ceilings not much higher. Living in these minuscule spaces 24 hours a day, all the while listening to bombs hit above them…

OK Back to Hue we go, but what is holding up all the traffic?

 

We made it back to Hue in once, exhausted. We spent the night enjoying pizza and the local beer.

So the next morning, we rented slightly better mottos to make our way to Hoi An via the Hai Van Pass:

 

For $15, we rented mottos, helmets, a map (my phone was the better map) and someone to drop our backpacks off at our hostel later that day in Hoi An. This country man, I tell ya…

But the views from the Hai Van Pass! Sure the weather wasn’t coroperating and Heather wasn’t feeling well, but:

**The Hai Van was one of the highlights for me on this trip, I loved the changing landscapes, following the curves of the road on my bike, I felt like a true explorer. Sure, it rained the entire time, but it was truly inspiring. 

We made it to Hoi An!

We spent a lovely two days in Hoi An, walking the streets and exploring.

We went to a Cafe where I enjoyed an Egg Coffee, Vietnam’s signature caffeinated beverage.

Picture the froth of a cappuccino thats 70% of the drink, but its much thicker and sweeter, with a few gulps of delicious coffee at the end to finish it off.

It was delicious.

I’d say we covered some serious ground in a short amount of time. I left the Following day for JAPAN! Stay tuned for my Japanese post!