Asian Adventures - Hue, Vietnam
We arrived in Hue (pronounced 'Whey') by overnight bus from Hanoi. This one was only 13 hours which seemed like nothing compared to our last overnight bus.
We didn't have a great start to our stay in Hue. As we knew we would be arriving at our hotel, The Charming Riverside, so early in the morning (around 7am) we had emailed the hotel ahead and asked if we were able to get early check in. They had replied to us and said the manager had agreed on this if we cancelled our reservation on Agoda and booked straight through the hotel. We had a look at our Agoda booking and unfortunately they were going to charge us half our booking to cancel it. We replied to the hotel explaining this and then received nothing back.
When we arrived at the hotel and explained this story the receptionist had no knowledge of these email exchanges and kept telling us check in wasn't until 2pm. If they had just replied to our last email and said we couldn't have early check in, then that would have been fine but we were just annoyed that they didn't bother getting back to us. It was as if they weren't happy we didn't rebook through them so didn't bother replying back. The receptionist phoned the manager to ask about this and he asked to speak to me. The phone call was hard as although the manager's English was good it was hard for him to understand what I was trying to explain over the phone and he kept telling me the hotel was full so we couldn't check in yet. He was really rude to me implying this was all my fault. In the end we left our bags at the hotel and went off for breakfast. We came back about 11am and got checked in to a room which was good.
The hotel was actually fine and the staff were friendly but the manager just seems like a horrible man. After our stay we put a review up on TripAdvisor explaining the emails and not getting a reply back and we had said the staff were all very nice but the manager had been rude to us. The manager had replied to us on TripAdvisor saying it wasn't nice that we were saying horrible things about the staff and that we were telling him to fire them, which we weren't at all. He also said I was 'a horrible, dishonest women' as when asked if we had a nice stay on check out I had said yes. I had said yes because we had sorted out the check in confusion at the time and I wasn't going to bring it up again, that doesn't make me dishonest. I would never go back to that hotel again and would tell anyone going to Hue not to go there either due to the manager's poor customer service. The issue with check in wasn't that big of a deal but got built up by the manager's response to me. I was just really annoyed at the way the manager spoke to me and wrote about me on TripAdvisor. I felt it was really unprofessional.
When we arrived at the hotel and explained this story the receptionist had no knowledge of these email exchanges and kept telling us check in wasn't until 2pm. If they had just replied to our last email and said we couldn't have early check in, then that would have been fine but we were just annoyed that they didn't bother getting back to us. It was as if they weren't happy we didn't rebook through them so didn't bother replying back. The receptionist phoned the manager to ask about this and he asked to speak to me. The phone call was hard as although the manager's English was good it was hard for him to understand what I was trying to explain over the phone and he kept telling me the hotel was full so we couldn't check in yet. He was really rude to me implying this was all my fault. In the end we left our bags at the hotel and went off for breakfast. We came back about 11am and got checked in to a room which was good.
The hotel was actually fine and the staff were friendly but the manager just seems like a horrible man. After our stay we put a review up on TripAdvisor explaining the emails and not getting a reply back and we had said the staff were all very nice but the manager had been rude to us. The manager had replied to us on TripAdvisor saying it wasn't nice that we were saying horrible things about the staff and that we were telling him to fire them, which we weren't at all. He also said I was 'a horrible, dishonest women' as when asked if we had a nice stay on check out I had said yes. I had said yes because we had sorted out the check in confusion at the time and I wasn't going to bring it up again, that doesn't make me dishonest. I would never go back to that hotel again and would tell anyone going to Hue not to go there either due to the manager's poor customer service. The issue with check in wasn't that big of a deal but got built up by the manager's response to me. I was just really annoyed at the way the manager spoke to me and wrote about me on TripAdvisor. I felt it was really unprofessional.
Anyway moving on...
Our first day in Hue was pretty chilled. We had a nap after checking in as we didn't get much sleep on the bus as there was a man being sick the whole journey. I felt so sorry for him being ill whilst travelling and he was on his own too. Hue is a much smaller city than Hanoi and a lot quieter as well which was a nice change after the hectic traffic we had experienced in Hanoi. We had a wander around the city walking by The Perfume River and taking in the city's atmosphere.
Rory found us a Vietnamese place for dinner called Nook that had a cute balcony area to sit in. I take any opportunity to sit outside to eat over here as we don't get many opportunities to at home. Unfortunately I didn't really like what I had chosen from the menu. There wasn't anything wrong with the food I just didn't like the flavours in it. Rory enjoyed his meal but we had a laugh looking at the floor underneath where he had been sitting as half his meal was on the floor. We had been away a month and a half by then but his chop stick technique still wasn't improving!
After dinner we went for a look around The Night Market. I can't hold myself back from having a look around whenever we pass a market. My eyes light up looking around the stalls looking for something to buy. It was getting to the point now where our bags were getting hard to close but I always get the fear I'll regret buying something and may never be here again. At one stall I noticed a jade roller in a basket and decided I had to get it. Jade rollers are used on your face to sooth and brighten your completion. You can roll on your bare skin or use to massage moisturisers or face masks into your skin. Obviously after I bought it we had to go back to the hotel and try it out on one another! The jade stone is so cooling on your face too and it was amazing in the Vietnam heat. I would use it after arriving back at the hotel from being out in the heat and it felt so refreshing!
The next day we were up early ready to see the many beautiful buildings of Hue. I really wanted to go and see some of the tombs around the city but didn't realise how far away they were and since we only had one more day here we didn't have time to do all the tombs as well as the Citadel which was a recommend attraction to go and see. It was a shame we couldn't go and see the tombs as it was something I really wanted to see. I struggled to accept the fact that we weren't able to do everything we wanted to do whilst away. I researched everywhere we were going to before we left on our trip and would look up activities and sights to see but obviously due to time we couldn't do everything and you just had to accept that.
We headed off to The Citadel in the boiling heat. Vietnam is by far the hottest country we have been to. We walked through the park and got chased by about ten women all trying to sell us boat trips and one did not give up and walked all the way to the end of the park with us despite us continuously saying we weren't interested in a tour.
The Citadel was built to protect the temples in the war. The buildings are so impressive and we enjoyed wandering through the grounds reading about the history of all the temples.
It's fascinating to see all the different designs of these temples, each one has amazing detail in them. On our way out of The Citadel we decided to look into a boat trip. First a man approached us but his price was too high and by the time we had turned around to walk away a women was in front of us offering us another deal and we decided to go with hers. We got on her boat and her family were all lying sleeping in the main part of the boat, I'm not sure if they all lived on it. We sat on the outside balcony admiring the views as we sailed down the river. We stopped of at The Pagoda of the Celestial Lady (Thien Mu Pagoda.) The surroundings were gorgeous as you could see the hills across the river. The Pagoda itself was also impressive and looked as though it had a Chinese influence to the architecture.
Our second stop was at An Hien the garden where the Emperor's daughter resided. It had a massive pond in the middle with loads of lily pads. I loved it, it was so pretty. There was an old women there who runs the garden and invited us in for tea and gave us a sheet of information about it. She didn't speak a lot of English but told us a little bit of information about Hue and the garden. We sat and had our tea and then went to look around the rest of the garden.
On the boat back Rory realised he had left our bag beside the table we were having tea at. This was the second time he had left our backpack on this trip!! I couldn't believe he had done it again! Obviously it was my fault though because I hadn't reminded him to pick it up! There wasn't anything valuable in it just some sun cream and rain jackets it was just the annoyance of leaving it behind. We were nearly back at the park we were picked up from and it was quite far to go back so we just left it.
To make up for him losing our bag, Rory found us a great place for dinner, an Italian restaurant Zucca. They had brilliant deals on. You got free bruschetta to start each, a free glass of wine if you bought a pizza and a free passion fruit each for dessert. Amazing! I would absolutely recommend this place not only for the freebies but the food was very tasty and the staff were great. We were both stuffed after our meal.
We had a lovely couple of days in Hue, despite the start of our stay. The next day we were heading to Hoi An which we were really excited for as everyone we had met had given it rave reviews, so we couldn't wait to find out what it had in store for us.
Recommendations -
The Citadel - https://www.imperialcityhue.com/home-vie.html
Thien Mu Pagoda - https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g293926-d451126-Reviews-Thien_Mu_Pagoda-Hue_Thua_Thien_Hue_Province.html
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