Tuesday 16th December 2008

Arrived in Hue on Sunday afternoon after a 2 hour train journey up the coast; very scenic with mountains hugging the coast and the railway track somehow squeezing in between the two. The mist and drizzle though was a portent of what was to come during our stay in Hue. It's been like that for the entire two days- the first time we've had to use our rainjackets and brolly in anger. Hue, well it's not Hoi An. It's a very functional city. The main tourist sights are located around the Citadel area North of the river and there is very little else. The touts and scammers are also out in force here; they are far more evident than anywhere else we have been. We try to avoid using transport where possible. However, we were forced to take a boat trip down the Perfume by name if not by nature river yesterday, more to get some relief from the rain than anything else. The tourist boats are named Dragon Boats - they look a little like our narrowboats but with a dragon head and tail. They are very noisy!! We visited a couple of Pagodas and a tomb of Tu Duc, who was ruler of Vietnam (albeit as a puppet of the Franch colonial masters) in the late 19th century. In the afternoon we wandered around the citadel area. The only area that you pay to get into is the Purple City in the centre; which we will visit this morning. We've drank and ate each night at the DMZ bar near our hotel - televised football and loud music but ok. It was so miserable last night we spent the rest of the evening in the room, watching a dreadful film involving ice hockey, bombs, penguins and Jean-Claude Van Damme and drinking the beer from the mini-bar! Off to Hanoi this afternoon on the final leg of the Reunification Express; we arrive at the ungodly hour of 4.30am!