I spent the last week traveling around Hue, a city about 650km from Nha Trang, with some friends I met. In celebration of the lunar new year, these three friends were heading back to their home town and invited me to come along so I was more than happy to join them and see a different part of the country. The trip started with a grueling 15 hour train ride that left the station at 11pm (but was, of course, delayed 2 hours...making for an even longer night!). Once we arrived, we visited the small village where they were from outside the city of Hue, caught up with family, ate delicious meals, sang some karaoke and went to sleep. The next day we went into the city and visited several pagados and tombs from imperial times. It was fascinating seeing the old architecture and ancient buildings and structures. We had a blast driving around on motor bikes and seeing all there is to see! Then we arranged for a tour up to the Phong Nha caves, about a 5 hour bus ride north from Hue city. The bus picked us up at 6am, then when we got there we took a short boat ride to the caves - they were truly spectacular! What a sight, they must have been 50-100 feet high and filled with stelagtites and stelagmites everywhere! And it was just breathtakingly beautiful. I really enjoyed my time there. What I wasnt looking forward to was the 4 hour bus right back to Hue, but it wasnt all that bad. The next day, we arranged for a bus to take us back to Nha Trang (the train was full because everybody was traveling for the holidays) which would take even longer than the train ride up - about 17 hours by bus! It was quite a jaunt, and the bumpy, congested roads didnt help, but we finally made it back to Nha Trang and now it's time to get back to work :)
the 4 of us at a temple
inside the caves!
on the boat, to the caves!
a beautiful old pagoda
on a cyclo in the city (basically a bicycle taxi)
riding around on motorbikes!
on the train - 15 hour ride to Hue from Nha Trang!
beautiful scenery
