Hue, Crazy Incident (Vietnam)

Before I get to the crazy incident.  Let me update just the town of Hue, Vietnam first.

We got there via our first "sleeping bus" experience.  13 hrs from Hanoi to Hue.  The sleeping bus is basically a tour bus but with bunkbeds of really slim, hospital beds in 3 rows all the way down the bus.  Seats about 35. You get your own tiny little area, a decent comfortable spot to stretch out and try to sleep for the long haul.  Unique experience, not all bad, just worth taking a sleeping pill or 2 to help you sleep through a few bumps along the way.  Depart Hanoi 8pm, arrive 9am next day in Hue.

We pulled into Hue quite groggy and sprung for a little nicer hotel for the few days we'd spend there.  We upgraded to the $15 a night suite :) hahahahha.  Quite nice though, and really great free breakfast even. Yeh!!!!  We highly recommend where we stayed, check out our "accomodations page" for more info.

Hue is a good size town, but not massive, and you can easily get around just walking, maybe a bicycle rental, but we chose a combination of walking and a bicycle-tuk-tuk to tour us around on our 2nd day.  Cost $6 for about 5 hours of personal tour guide and much fun on the weeee-tuk riding.  We had a great time with our guide who's name was Hue (funny coincidence) as we explored the walled in city, the Citadel, the Forbidden Purple City (absolutely amazing) and Palace grounds, the views of the Perfume River,  had cheap authentic lunch with our guide, and then the Thien Mu Pagoda (one of the most famous in all of Vietnam)- spectacular.  Great town to simply be a "tourist" honestly.

This city was badly damaged during the Vietnam/American War.  (Note: they call the war over here "The American War".  We call it at home "The Vietnam War", interesting eh.)  You can still see the mortar damage and bullet holes in the cities fortress walls.

We had a great Italian dinner one night and enjoyed sitting next to a retired couple from Scotland. One of the funniest things we've heard since leaving was the old gentlemen giving us a bit of warning before we departed company.  He was really funny.  He was kind of warning us of being ripped off and theft, etc.  As he leaves he turns and says "make sure you keep your hands on your Dong".  The "Dong" is the currency here in Vietnam.  Christina and I thought that could easily be a best selling T-shirt.

Ok- on to the crazy incident.  The day we went touring, it was misty, grey and cloudy, the streets still wet.  We were walking across a bridge to get to our first viewing spot and as we turn, we see a couple hopping a chest high fence to short-cut an exit in a park area they were in.  Well the lady makes it over.  Keep in mind they're about mid-40's or so.  The guy slips as he gets half way over and literally impails the back of his thigh on the speared tips of the fence.  We see this occurring from the other side of the street and rush across traffic.  His hands on reaching for the ground and he's upside down, leg still impailed holding him on the fence.  By the time we reach him, his leg apparently gives and rips through as he falls to the ground, eyes rolling back in his head, turning white, and gasping for air.  His wife is freaking (rightfully so), and we tell her to put pressure on his leg and wrap it in a scarf tightly to help stop the bleeding.  It kind of works.  I grab his legs and hold them up in the air and get him on his back.  He's pale white now and a crowd has gathered.  Blood still running down the fence.  We yell to a nearby "policeman" asking him to call an ambulance, he seems un-concerned.  7-8-9 minutes go by, no ambulance.  The couple is French and speak only little English, a by-stander luckily speaks French and all decide to hail a taxi and get him to the hospital (The policeman obviously not caring that much).  Me and two other guys lift him up by the legs and shoulders and carry him to the street and put him in the back seat of the taxi.  The one tourist goes with them to help since he speaks French. Away the taxi speeds.  I'm standing there with blood on my hands, rain in my face, a shocked wife, and quite a story left to tell.  Christina, always the prepared mothering type pulls out the antibacterial wipes for a safety clean up of the blood on my hands and away we went both a bit shaken.

We later snap a couple pictures for memory sake as the blood was still on the fence 5 hours after our tour as we went back by.  Crazy man, crazy!  Note to self: use the public exits to places, don't jump wet fences with spear tips.  That guy is lucky he didn't puncture a lung and it was just a leg.  But that'll really ruin a trip.
Man, when travelers do dumb sh*t someones bound to get hurt!