Day 5 (3 rd Feb 2013)

We were not sure when we would have to get down, so were ready from 6am. We also managed to use the rest room on the bus :-( it was a horrible experience but felt relieved. We reached Dong Ha at 7 am. and immediately assembled the cycles which arrived, to our surprise in one piece. We finally started cycling at 8.15am. after having breakfast at local joint, where the lady owner had to call someone to help select our menu.... We had filter coffee and Kedar just loved it, it was very very strong and they had ice cubes to put in. We headed for 'Hue' (Hoy), reached Hue at about 12.30pm after covering 72kms on a flat but very busy highway. After lunch we visited Citadel and the Palace complex. It was a beautiful complex where we took battery operated vehicle driven by a girl (our guide cum driver) She was of no use as a guide as her English was not understandable to us & ours to her. When we spoke in English she kept saying 'Not understand Indian, speak English... :-))...)

Language is a huge problem in Vietnam as people do not understand simple words like water, hotel etc. When we were asking for town names their pronunciations are completely different than the spellings so they do not understand our pronunciations at all.. Example - Hue is pronounced 'Hoe' or 'ho ye?'

Hue is a beautiful city (was heavily bombarded by the US forces during the war) with old quarters of Citadel and new city of high rise building's, flanked with the huge Perfume river. Left Hue at 3.30 equipped with a newly purchased road map of Vietnam. 

Reached Phu Loc at 5.30 but had great difficulty finding a guest house, no one understood the words 'Hotel/Guesthouse'. Finally found one at entrance of Bachma Sanctuary at 6.45 pm.  It was dark by the time we reached, but had a lovely hot shower followed by dinner of egg noodles and green tea ( Total cycling this first day was 120 kms)