We caught the 7:30 sleeper bus (sleeper at 7:30 in the morning ???) to Danang with the plan to get off in Hue.

The formalities at the combined border crossing was easy, if a bit slow (mostly because they seemed intrigued by our South African passports). The Laos and Vietnamese border control staff sit in the same cubicle and process your exit and entry as a single excercise - all border posts should be like this.

The bus driver dropped us off about 15 kms out of Hue and we cycled in to find a hotel on the south bank. We settled for the Dang Tuan on Lei Loi Street, the main drag down the south bank. Great room, large, clean and with all the stuff needed. Pity about about the smell of cigarette smoke, something that I am led to believe we will have to get used to in Vietnam.

We are right in the the middle of the tourist hotspot on the south bank, so there are lots of restaurants and bars from which to choose. We had a lovely supper at the Hot Tuna (I loved that band - Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane doing their own thing on the side). I had some beef with chilli and lemon grass, because I haven't had beef for a couple of months now, and Leigh settled for duck with the same treatment. Even though it is so touristy, I can't help liking it. It's a bit like Bangkok - I hate cities but I feel at home there.

After supper we strolled around a bit to get a feel for the area. As we were passing a bar, we heard South African accents and suddenly we were having a drink with a South African couple and a Kurdish Iraqi who have been working in the UXO business in SE Asia for the past few years. These were the first fellow counrtymen we had seen in two months.