Hue

We arrived in Hue and went straight to our hotel where fortunately we could book in early as we were feeling a little travel weary. The Hotel is only three star but our room is really spacious with a sofa and arm chair, feels like a little suite. The sink was full of water with Jasmine flowers and flowers on the bed, it was lovely and the staff great too. We quickly settled in. After a bit of a rest and a shower it was off exploring. We decided to take a cyclo ride to the Market but were talked into going to the Citadel. This was where we had our first really unhappy experience, the cyclo chaps who had agreed on one dollar for the market were now adding on 4 dollars for an extra 5 minute ride. We were not happy but gave them the money and put this down to experience. The Citadel surprised us, it is vast. Much of it is a very sad state with significant damage inflicted in both the war with the French in 1946 and again by the Americans in the 60s. There was also a devastating tornado in the 80s which inflicted even more damage. Restoration is taking place but it all looks a bit haphazard. They also need to restrict some of the more bizarre activities like riding your motor scooter down the newly restored corridors! A lot of what has been preserved is really interesting, the last Emperor to live there was in 1925 and there is quite a bit of photographic evidence of his life there at that time, it really made the place come alive. We had a wonderful afternoon, I took loads of photos, walked for miles and had a great time appreciating the place. We were now tired so we decided to get a taxi back to the Hotel, remembering how earlier we had been ripped off we were very careful to ensure the meter was used and the correct route taken back to the hotel. We were so focused on this that I left my camera in the back of the taxi. We have tried everything to get it back without success so I am going to have to rely on getting some photos from people we met on the boat in Halong bay and postcards of other places. Fortunateley we had downloaded a lot of our earlier photos on to the lap top but some are now lost for ever.

The following day John went out looking for a new camera and I had a Vietnamese cookery lesson. The lesson started with me having to climb on the back of a motor bike and ride to the market to buy the ingredients. The crash helmet I was given perched on the top of my head like a pimple, the chin strap held for the journey there but on the way back it gave up on me so I rode along with my hand holding the crash helmet on my head. The market was amazing with just about everything you could imagine on sale from fish heads to conical hats and silk by the yard. We got our cooking ingredients and returned to Missy Roo's restaurant where the lesson took place. It was great fun. As soon as I cooked something I had to sample what I had made so by lunchtime I was full and had a take-away ready for John. There were a couple of times during the lesson when I had to remember the saying 'you have to eat a ton of muck before you die', there was this dish cloth..... I shall leave it to your imagination, start with a grotty floor cloth then double it. The Imodium is still in its packet so it can't have been that bad.

We are now the owners of a new camera, a neat little Canon whch does all sorts of whizzy things, John is in his element playing with this.

Our last day in Hue was pouring with rain and we had a trip planned to go round the tombs of the Emperors, the Pagoda and the Mandarin's Garden culminating in a trip down the Perfumed River on a Dragon Boat. You will be pleased to learn that your intrepid friends decided that a tropical monsoon was not going to put us off. We purchased a couple of pochos, one pink and the other blue (just in case we forgot) and off we went with our guide and driver for the day. The tombs in Hue are marvelous, even in the rain. Our guide was great, spoke good English and was able to give us the history of the tombs and also some amusing stories about the people who had them built. The Mandarin's garden was a bit of a high spot, this Vietnamese woman showed us all the plants, knew what they were and even broke off a piece of bark of a cinnamon tree so that we could recognise the scent.

The trip on the Dragon Boat would have been great in good weather but in the rain it lacked a certain charm. The boat owners wife had laid out lots of things to sell and I think was disappointed that I only bought some cards, it is difficult when we have so much travelling in front of us to collect too many souvenirs. I did compensate by paying the fullprice and not bargaining which clearly surprised her.

I am a convert to plastic ponchos, we stayed quite dry from the knees up, from the knees down, that's a different story.

Tomorrow it is off to Hoi An which is supposed to be beautiful, the weather is set in to be rainey so I shall ensure I take the trusty poncho with me.