Central Vietnam here we come!

Hanoi

Back in Hanoi we grabbed some sought after tickets to see the world famous Thang Long water puppets. Although we had never heard of them before they have won awards internationally and were more fun to watch than traditional puppets. The stage is a shallow pool where the puppets perform attached to long rods, which are controlled by people behind curtains. There was a live band accompanying it which was full of vietnamese instruments. The whole show lasted about 45mins in which they used the puppets to tell some of the history and traditions in Vietnam. It was pretty weird but it was in an air-conditioned theatre which we appreciated as we are having issues with the heat.

Looks like she is playing air- there is infact an instrument there!

That evening we experienced our first sleeper bus which took us to Hue (pronounced hway, and approx 12 hours from Hanoi). We had imagined what it would be like- turns out they are nothing like the Harry Potter Night bus! Although they did have almost flat seats with a pillow and blanket. Despite the crazy driving and having to pee in holes in the ground, the trip was successful and nothing was stolen yay!

Having decided to spend only one night in Hue we headed out to the main attraction, the old Citadel. It was once the grounds of the Emperor's Palace, although due to the bombings, the buildings are now ruins so it feels like you are in the Jungle Book.

Entrance to Citadel

Waiting for King Louis to appear

From the Citadel we had to go to the train station which was too far to walk and so we took a cyclo. Even after we insisted we would not fit, the driver squished us in and set off. We thought we had experienced being stared at but this journey attracted the attention of all passing Vietnamese, especially when the driver had to get off and push us uphill.

This is a cyclo

Hue backpackers