VIETNAM - Hue

Hue is the ancient capital of Vietnam and thus has much of architectural merit and wonder, unforntunately the weather was rubbish while we were there and we saw a lot of it through light showers.

We hired a dragon boat down the river which is reported to be quite stunning, in order to go and see a famous emporers tomb, Tu Duc and a famous pagoda. Again the weather was not good and the river was far from stunning. Getting to the tomb was an intersting trip. We got off the boat in the middle of nowhere where we were met by a guy and his moped, soon 2 more arrived and we got moped taxis to Tu Duc. The tombs were also a place of residence for the emporer and his court. The surrounding grounds were extensive and contained the tombs themselves. It was a very mossy wet area and i'm sure the highlight for Karl and Clem was me slipping over quite spectacularly going down some steps. I managed to escape with a couple of bruised knuckles bruised ass and ego! hahaha.

Next stop was the Tien Mu Pagoda. Not till arriving and seeing for myself did i realise that it was the home of the subject of one of the most famous photos in history. Thich Quang Du'c was a Vietnamese Monk who burned himself to death by the road in Saigon in protest to the persecution of Buddhists. The car which he used to get to Saigon was returned to the Pagoda and remains there as part of a memorial to the monk.

Later we walked around some of the Citadel, the original walled city. Within is another Citadel which was home to the Emporer. Unfortunately much of the original palace no longer exists, but the grandeur must have been fantastic baring in mind the size of the site.

Next day we went on a tour of the DMZ. For those unfamiliar with TLA's (Three Letter Accronyms) it means demilitarised zone. The tour took in many of the most important sites in the centre of the country, at the heart of the Vietnam War. We visted some fo the tunnels used during the conflict between the North and South as well as seeing the Rockpile, a strategic U.S viewpoint and a famous US Airstrip which i cant remember the name of at the moment, near the Laos border.

The tunnels were a real eye opener showing amazing Vietnamese resiliance. We ere were shown around by a lady who spoke perfect English, French, Chinese amongst other languages, additionally was a very short man, who grew up in the tunnels. the lack of light and nutrients had a serious effect on his growth and he stood no higher than a small child mayb of the age of 8. He was amazing at finding his way through the nearly pitch black tunnels however, running through areas we had to stoop through. He also could not speak, since birth, but understood Vietnamese, Thai, English and French, an incredible man. After the long day we returned to the guest house and prepared ouselves for the journey the next day to Hoi an.