Relax, relax, relax.

We arrived in Hue the following morning, had breakfast at the train station and grabbed a taxi into the centre. Cat and Flora sat in a cafe whilst Pedro went on the hunt for somewhere to stay. While Pedro was out looking, Cat started to feel really unwell and had to ask Pedro to come back before he had fully explored the options. Despite this, he had found a lovely guesthouse, and since Cat was in desperate need of somewhere to lie down with a bathroom close by, we hurried there to check in. Cat spent the following 24 hours horizontal, while Pedro and Flora went out for lunch and had a look around. The next day, Cat had enough energy to get a cycle taxi to the Imperial Palace and have a brief look around with Flora, whilst Pedro enjoyed a game of cards and a couple of beers at the High Times Cafe. It was so hot and humid in Hue that after a couple of nights we decided we had had enough and got the bus to Hoi An. Now, as our bus was due to depart at 1pm, and the journey was 4 to 5 hours, we were very surprised to board a sleeper bus. Problems ensued when we were

directed to the 3 claustrophobic beds at the back of the bus on the lower tier. We refused to use those seats as the bus was largely empty, but the conductor was pretty rude and irate, at one point telling us to get off the bus. A compromise was reached and as we waited on the bus for another 45 minutes for the rest of the passengers, we watched a similar scene play out each time new passengers arrived.
And then we arrived to Christina's in Tra Que, the island in the river between Hoi An old town, and the beach. This was certainly a step up in accommodation for us. We were shown to our enormous room, beautifully decorated and overlooking both a lake and the river. There were day beds by the lake, a gorgeous pool, free bikes to cycle around,

and lots of lovely communal areas to hang out in. We immediately knew we wanted to extend our stay! The area is known for growing vegetables and all around were carefully cultivated patches growing a wide variety of herbs and vegetables. We went for dinner at Baby Mustard, a restaurant around 5 minutes walk away. This has to be one of the real stand out culinary experiences of our trip so far. The food was amazing. So much we went twice more during our stay. Christina's really embodied relaxation, and we generally did very little during our stay, other than play in the pool, play games, and focus on Flora's home schooling. We cycled to the beach one day for lunch and a swim, and headed into the old town a few times. The old town of Hanoi is barely recognisable from when Cat was last

here 19 years ago. It is absolutely saturated with tourists and everything the industry comprises...restaurants, cafes, shops selling all the same stuff, tailors, boat trips on the rivers, lanterns. It was all pretty overwhelming and although the old town is cute with lots of lovely old buildings, the sheer volume of tourists made it quite unappealing to us. On the recommendation of a guy who lives in the area who was having breakfast at our guesthouse, we went to a cute little bar on a boat in the river at the end of the island. No tourists, peaceful, with great views of the old town and all the boats and lanterns. It was a great recommendation.