Goodbye Ha Noi Hellhole ... Hello ... Viet Nam???

15 or 16 August - Have just come off a rather excruciating 14 hour busride from Ha Noi to a new destination, somewhere south of Ha Noi ... The bus ride was rather uncomfortable - absolutely no leg room for anyone over five and a half feet tall and even though I thought i'd scored by getting an aisle seat the fact that there was somebody sleeping on the floor of the aisle beside me meant that I got no respite in that area. The second leg gave a bit more room after amy neighbour, a very British sounding Bonn girl, got off to switch buses to Laos but despite getting a bit of sleep I received some severe cricks in my neck and pains in my buttocks. I'd bought an open ticket to Saigon from my hotel and they told me i'd just be given my ticket at the agency - the agency put a few of us in a cab and told us we'd be given tickets on the bus, I didn't know what the first stop was going to be so I just said i'm going south in viet nam (which was a bit confusing when I was on the same bus as a girl going to another country) - had a bit of a stressful situation with the conductor who was asking for my receipt (didn';t have it) then what guest house I was stayingat (didn't know because they'd told me different names) but finally he gave me a ticket and asked me where iwas going - didn't know, rattled off the first major city south of ha noi, vinh, which is not on their route. I said, just drop me off with the others and it seemed to be okay. i'm still not sure what city i'm currently in but it seems a lot more rural than Ha Noi. Ha Noi was great but the pollution and the traffic were stressing me out a little - it was great to go to Ha Long Bay where a lot of the time was spent just crusing on a boat and a bit of a shock to return to the city.
I met a very nice, very French man from Tuluse named Pierre (hardly surprising) who was over here teaching French to the natives (exercise in futility??? Surely not) and we seemed to hit it off pretty well - I think i've been very lucky on most of my journeys to meet one or more people with similar interests or outlooks - a lot of the touring is spent on a bus or a train or a boat and if you're alone it can be rather dull (books ar well and good but I could be doing that at home), the fact that i've generally met non-Australians and mainly non-native English speakers (who tend to speak pretty good English regardless) is also quite refreshing as once we make it past the we are you from, where ar you going, how's your trip been part of the conversation (the quintessential opener around these parts) they've usually got something interesting to talk about. Pierre introduced me to green bean cakes and, upon our return to Ha Noi, the cheapest beer i've found anywhere (1500 dong or about 13c a glass; although it may be said, you get what you pay for).
We wandered the streets of the old quarter for ages looking for some place where we could sit down for dinner that wasn't western and finally found somewhere quite nice - however, the toilet was a new level of chaallenge that i'd not yet encountered. Asked where it was and she said upstairs, four flights up the tiniest staircase i've ever been (think of my spiral staircase, hobbit sized) I came to a shower room with no toilet, not even a hole in the ground. Just a shower head and a few plastic buckets and a drainpipe. I asked, toilet??? And the woman up there gestured me into the room - luckily it was just No1 because all I could think to do was aim for the drainpipe and then throw some water down to try to get the remnants to wash down. not very successfully I might add. Then I found that i'd locked myself in the room and had to bang for about 5m to be let out.
Pierre also told me about some nice places to get Thit Cho in Ha Noi but unfortunattly i've left the city, not to return for a while, so i'll have to see if I can find some in this town - wherever it is ... It might be Hue, don't reallywant to ask at the front desk of my hotel for sounding like an ignorant tourist (um, what city am I in???) buy i'm dutr iy eill be fine - it's quite cloudy outside so hopefully the day won't be too oppressive.
Also, finished Piers Anthony's blockbuster science fiction Cluster series last night (well, the first three anyway, 4 and 5 were merely addendums to the story) - not nearly as enjoyable as they were when I was 16 - still epic in scope and amazing in concept but very repetitive and kind of dull at times. can't really complain - I don't know why I was re-reading them anyway, it's not as if Andromeda wins if you read it for a second time. Now onto the Chornicles of Narnia - only reading the children's books because the movie is coming out later this year and I want it to be fresh in my mind ... I would read something a bit more high brow if only someone would email it to me .... Mr Johnston, hmm???
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Have just been for a bit of a run around town (getting a bit lost on my return naturally) and i've confirmed that the city i'm in is Hue, i'll probably do a tour of sorts tomorrow and after that will make my way to Hoi An.