The private car we organised somehow morphed itself from a Mercedes SUV at the time of booking to a Toyota SUV by the time it got to our hotel. Brynley was worried it may be a Fiat Uno by the time we got to Hue.
We were to have a brief stop at Marble Mountain ('Mountain" being the key word here). Not quite what we expected - Marble Mountain turned out to be a tourist factory shop knocking out marble statues. It was impressive though (but too big for carry on hand luggage). Maybe the Mountain was out the back somewhere.
The highlight of the journey was clearly the Hai Van Pass (Sea Cloud Pass) through the mountains. We were going up gradients of nearly 10% for ages. Ear popping. The view from the top was spectacular.
On the way down we stopped in Lang Co which has a turquoise lagoon on one side and 10km of idyllic white beaches on the other. It is easy to see how people fall in love with this country. Mental note to self - sell everything when you return to Perth and retire to Lang Co.
The trip was only just over 100km as the crow flies but took nearly 4 hours (the crow does't fly very straight in the mountains). The constant drone of the engine and driver sniffing the same booga up his nostril the whole trip led to each of us zoning out and having a little snooze at some stage along the way.
Hue looks like it is a beautiful ancient city. We will start to explore the city tomorrow. In the meantime ...
there were more shoes to buy. Jordan "Imelda Marcos" Scott bought a pair of black Converse sneakers for a ridiculous price. The reason they were a ridiculous price was that the Converse badges were stuck on the wrong sides of the shoes. Oh no - how will anybody see them??
We struck it lucky again and found an excellent restaurant, Le Caramel, for dinner. We think the children are turning into foodies. They are ordering Vietnamese food every night and are being adventurous. Tia didn't like the vegetable, Morning Glory before but tried it tonight because it was fried with garlic. She loved it. Jordan and Tia are also asking for chopsticks when the waiter only brings out knives and forks.
And as for Brynley and Lisa, for every new town there is .....
a new beer.
