Vietnam Trip: Day 7 | Hue and the Organizing Skills of Vietnamese Travel Agents

As I arrived at the Hue train station I got offered a hotel with apparently no strings attached. I was sceptical at first, but the guy offered to drive me to the hotel for free, to take a look at the rooms and if I didn’t like the hotel, there were no obligations. The guy also conveniently mentioned that the hotel is no. 42 in the Lonely Planet guide and around US $8-10. For Vietnamese standards he spoke fairly good English. I was convinced and took a look at the hotel, which was very nice and clean. It was actually the nicest and cleanest hotel I’ve stayed at while in Vietnam. And with US $8-10 per night, also one of the cheapest! One of the girls at the reception explained to me later on that the hotel was just recently built. That explained why the light switches were still wrapped in plastic Here are some pictures of my room.

My Hotel Room in Hue

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Finally settled in, I went to visit some of Hue’s famous sights.

Hue Citadel, Imperial Enclosure, Forbidden Purple City, Pagoda

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Before I went back to the hotel I called the travel agency where I booked my bus, train and flight tickets to confirm my sleeper bus to Hoi An (my next stop on my trip) and conveniently found out that my bus leaves at 2 p.m. and not what was originally booked, 6 p.m. That meant that I couldn’t go to Bach Ma the next day. Even though this was an optional stop on my itinerary, I would’ve really liked to see the Bach Ma National Park. While this situation was to blame on the poor organizing skill of most Vietnamese travel agencies, I can’t really complain, because I was the one who chose to have a very tight itinerary to begin with. Beggars can’t be choosers. Ultimately, I don’t regret having a tight schedule to see more of Vietnam, even if briefly.