Hue

The road to Hue is stunning lush green mountains on the left, beautiful  coast line on the right. At our little stop there is a beautiful stretch of coastline with boats bobbing around. This is Viet Nam, beautiful and unspoilt, unfortunately it isn't all like this.

The bus drops us outside Binh Duong II Hotel which turns out to be the place for us. Our room has a bath, only the second one I've seen since we've been away, and a lovely balcony with table and chairs.

Dinner tonight is to be at a vegetarian restaurant which gets a write up in the book and sounds great. The menu is extensive and sounds mouthwateringly good.  It turns out we can only order noodle soup (I'm so sick of noodle soup) or the set menu for 90,000VND, there's no translation for this so we order one to share! It looks good apart from the sizeable bug in the rice (which she changes) and we tuck in.  Then the rats come out to play - needless to say we left fairly quickly.

The next day dawns with a serious mist and we head off to the railway station to book tickets on the reunification express - it's not to be, full today full tomorrow.  Eventually we settle for the overnight soft sleeper bus to Ha Noi, it's full today but we get seats for tomorrow.  Now our time in Hue can begin.

The Citadel is the old imperial city and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It ts quite beautiful and peaceful despite the hoards of Vietnamese tourists - it is still New Year you know. The centre of the Citadel is very much Indochinese but the outer, later buildings are quite definitely French, built by an Emperor who went to France to be educated. All  in all it's a quite beautiful place.  From here we head to the market which is still not fully open but it's interestin all the same.  Hue is THE place to buy the Vietnamese cone hats, they make a special one which when held up to the light shows a picture of the Pagoda, a poem about Hue, a couple within a heart and the victory bridge. They;re quite clever as you can't see anything inside and out unless you hold it up to the light.

Dinner tonight is preceeded by beers and backgammon on the balcony. We find a very busy restaurant just around the corner where they order beer in crates! Dinner is very tasty and the man on the next table gives us jelly fish to try - it's an acquired texture sort of crunchy and jellified all at once - and it's quite expensive.  He explains that the sign on the wall for BaBa (which we thought was the beer Bar Bar Bar) is turtle which is available as free range or farmed and priced accordingly.

A bright and sunny day awaits for our boat tour on the Song Huong (Perfume River) today. First stop on our twin hulled dragon boat is a little temple. This is followed by the Thien Mu Pagoda when I am asked (more than once) to pose for pictures with various Vietnamese people.  I think I might have missed a money making opportunity here!

Next stop is the tomb of Emperor Minh Mang which is really nice and peaceful.  The Emperor had 200 wives but only 142 children oh, and several concubines too. Busy chap! A good hour down river and we stop at another tomb, we decline this time and sit by the river in the sun it's so peaceful.

Lunch on the boat is rice and tofu, it's the best tofu I've tasted whilst we've been away, not spongy at all.  Could just do with a nice big slice of coffee and walnut cake!

After lunch another couple of tombs and a little shop where they make incence sticks and cone hats.  It's been an interesting and relaxing day and we're now on the road to Ha Noi.