Day 31: Transfer to Hue

We slept in this morning... I don't think any of us wanted to say goodbye to Hoi An - both the town and the cute host family of our bed and breakfast.  We got a family and family picture before we left, but it's on my camera - we look like giants of course!  Before leaving, we did have our last Pho breakfast there... Mmmmm good.   I think I'm the biggest Pho for breakfast fan in the family - Beth and Abby crave western breakfasts and Robin?  It depends on the day.

We hired a private car to take us north to Hue today.  We had heard Hue was an "ok" city and we were really just using it as a break point in our way to Phong Nha national park.   The first two hours of the drive were spectacular as we climbed out of the bay surrounding Danang, up to the Hai Van pass where we stopped for a stretch.  This pass was a major strategic point in the Amercian war (that's the name here for what we would call the Vietnam war) - as it was very difficult to move anything north or south without crossing this pass.   There is still an old American tower and bunker up there, and a few hundred vendors trying to sell you water and Pringles!  Great views of Danang bay and the water and land to the north.

We arrived in Hue without incident in mid afternoon.  Our hotel is located right near the perfume river which separates the new part of the city with the walled citadel that made Hue the ancient capital of Vietnam.  We walked for an hour or so to get oriented (spotted an Indian restaurant that we will be attacking for dinner tomorrow) then headed back to the hotel to play cards.

At night, the girls and I took a cab over to the movie theater to see Jurassic World but discovered it was sold out so we settled for watching the Rock save his family in San Andreas.  I got a request from Beth for peanut butter (!) and the theater was located above a department store and grocery store (of course it was!), so after the movie we went hunting for peanut butter.   Weird - the grocery store was packed (9pm on a Thursday) and when we were in line, it felt like the whole store was looking at us (with only a small jar of peanut butter in hand).  It was mostly funny, partly uncomfortable - you could see groups of people smiling, staring and whispering as they took in the sight of the Gaijinzilla with his two giant blonde kids!

Tomorrow, Beth has ordered that we will be "seeing some sights!" - sounds like we will need our walking shoes!