Hue

Day 1: Arrived early in Hue (did get a shout this time) and I was DESPERATE to finally check into a room somewhere. The trip to Sapa and the extra day in Hanoi had meant 3 consecutive nights of sleeper buses and no shower or room check-in in those 3 days - Nice!

Found a guesthouse and had probably the longest shower I've ever had. Then went to explore the town and market and soon enough got completely lost - that's usually the first thing I do in a new place. It was overcast again - getting used to that. After finding my bearings I went and found Jakob and also bumped into Mitja and Sebastien, who were both going out to explore the city (not Jakob though - he's by far the laziest traveller I've come across. Lol).

That afternoon, I went to have a walk around the Citadel - a former imperial city that was heavily bombed by the Americans. Not a great deal left to see apart from all the damage that was caused. Quite impressive wall surrounding it all also.

Unfortunately, the motorbike drivers in Hue were the most annoying I've come across so far in Vietnam. I think I get targeted being a lone westerner because I couldn't walk 10 yards without being offered Marijuana, a "lady" or a Zippo lighter (or a motorbike ride of course). Really gets on your nerves after a while when you just want to have a look around.

Once I'd had enough of them, I just chilled that evening. Well earned after 3 nights on a bus.

Day 2: I booked onto a city boat tour to ride down the Song Huong river. This included a visit to a 7 Pillar Pagoda and also 3 Royal Tombs. We had a superb guide(Bing), who was probably the best I've had on the trip so far. really knew his stuff and told us loads about Buddhism, the "circle of life", Monks and the lessoning effect of Religion in Vietnam since it became completely communist (85% of the population don't follow a religion apparently). Very interesting.

Back on the boat, which had a kitten on it being picked up its head and then by it's 2 front legs - not nice to see. Not a lone incident out here when it comes to Cats and Dogs though I'm afraid to say. Hard to accept at times.

Met a nice Dutch couple on the boat (Raymond & Annette) who gave me some tips on things to see when I go back to Bangkok. We then went to check out the Tombs and I loved all of them. All different but impressive in their own way. The best one was the Tomb of Minh Mang, which is massive and has a very gothic look to it. The interior was equally impressive with incredible attention to detail. All the tombs had stone soldier statues outside of them as well - looks really cool and made for some good photos. I do intend on putting some up before the 8 months is up - promise.

All in all, a really good tour that illustrated what a difference a decent tour guide can make. Everyone enjoyed it and we definately got our money's worth. Hats off to Bing.

Chilled again that evening and watched the Footy. Easy to access out here and I need my fix every now and again.

Day 3: Another tour (which has now seen me coin the nickname "Tour Chris" from my German friends - haha). This one was a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) tour of the area surrounding the divide between North and South Vietnam, which saw some of the fiercest fighting in the American war. Was keen to do this and learn some more about it all.

Very early pick up (6am) as the sights are about 100km from Hue. Another good tour guide (Tam), who was 14 when the war started and was clearly still scarred by it all. Knew his stuff but was reluctant to answer too many questions and was obviously extremely resentful towards Americans and didnt want to go into too much detail. This was fair enough I thought and gave us all an insight into how a lot of people feel in Vietnam.

He knew his stuff though and even passed around some basic info for those of us who weren't fully clued up on the circumstances surrounding it all. Met a French speaking Canadian couple (Dominique & Kamile), who were really nice, although not much enjoying Vietnam so far! Also met an older Canadian guy called Carl, who had actually managed to just avoid being enlisted into the war. He also educated me some more.

The tour visited The Rockpile, which used to have an American helipad base on top of it (now a Vietnamese flag), a bridge near Hamburger Hill, that was built after the war and Khe Sanh Combat Base, which was the site for one of the most famous sieges. Some great stuff to see here, including old helicopters, planes, tanks and bombs. Wouldn't say it was a pleasant visit but very interesting and quite humbling as well.

Finally, we crossed the bridge that divides North and South Vietnam and went to visit the Ho Chi Minh tunnels, which had been built for 200 people to live in over a 6 year period . We also got to walk through them, which was cool (if a bit claustrophobic for some). Not me though - I managed to fit through surprisingly easily.

Another good tour, despite there being a lot of bus travel involved. A few people complained about this but I'm not sure how they expected to see all the significant sites in just one day. I enjoyed it anyway.