Our alarm began beeping at 3:30am much to our disappointment and so we quickly pulled on some clothes before heading downstairs to find a man asleep on the floor. He woke up almost instantly and opened the door which allowed us to see that our taxi was already waiting to take us to the airport. We handed over our receipt to show that the journey had already been paid but the driver kept saying "cheap for me" over and over again. We just nodded and agreed until we reached the airport and realised that he had actually been saying "tip for me", but after our last experience in a taxi we decided to ignore his request! The airport was pretty much empty and our check-in desk was already open so we were able to make our way straight to the departure lounge. I hoped we would be able to get some breakfast but there wasn't a single thing open. We instead sat and watched two rats run around the place! We did manage to get a black coffee before we were called to board our flight to Hue. The Vietnam Airlines plane looked brand spanking new and it was a little bit more luxurious than what we had become used to when travelling with Air Asia. We were even given a refreshment towel upon boarding and a complimentary bottle of water. The take-off was really quick and before long we were flying above the sea as we approached Hue forty five minutes later. However, the landing was a little bit of a surprise as the plane almost over-shot the runway so the pilot applied the brakes quite vigorously at one point! A bus pulled up outside of the aircraft to take us to the terminal building but it was literally a few hundred metres away. There was also a Mercedes waiting on the runway for some important religious figure that got a fair few people camera clicking. Hue airport was absolutely tiny as we literally walked in one door which led to a single room and then another door lead out to the front car park. We collected our backpack and then tried our chance at getting a Mai Linh taxi. There was no problem for once and they agreed to take us to Le Loi on the meter. It was around 13km away but it was reasonably priced at 200,000 dong. The driver dropped us off right outside of 'Tran Ly' hotel where we received a welcome drink upon our arrival. The staff were extremely friendly and attentive and immediately found a place for us to put down our backpack. We were then shown to a room that had a nice balcony but it was a little too expensive for our budget so we opted for a room without a window. We had breakfast whilst our room was being cleaned and then had a shower so that we were ready to go and explore Hue city. We walked along Le Loi in search of a place called 'Cafe 3', but it never materialised no matter how many times we checked our map. We had walked so far and it was so hot that we just gave up and returned walking the same way. We walked past 'Quoc Hoc High School' which Ho Chi Minh attended for at least a year before being expelled for taking part in an anti-government demonstration. We then walked alongside the 'Perfume River' where the grassland was dotted with large stone sculptures that were fairly random. We stopped at 'DMZ Bar' and had a seat outside before ordering something to eat. We both opted for a salad which was a refreshing change and a beer. We returned to our hotel room and took advantage of the fact that we had cable TV! We chilled out for a while before walking to 'Mandarin Cafe' for something to eat. The owner, Mr. Cu, was super friendly and showed us a personal photo album demonstrating his excellent eye for photography, plus the food was of a decent quality.