Hue

We left Hoi An by bus early in the morning and arrived at Hue five hours later.  The distance is only about 130km, but the going was slow.  Slow and painful.  As we were lucky enough to get on first we had the front seat, which had legroom, so we were moderately comfortable.  We got stopped a couple of times for police checks, and as we had to traverse some mountain ranges, we got caught behind even slower vehicles.  Well we were caught behind until the driver did the classic, over take into a blind corner, horn blaring and hoping for the best move we are getting to know so well here.  Ill remind you, we were in the front seat and perhaps wished we were further back not knowing what was going on :/  There was a miriad of broken down vehicles, the worse one, a truck with its drive shafts and diff in pieces in what looked like an attempt to repair.  It was abandoned...  Regardless we arrived.

The bus terminal was a slate factory, and as soon as we stepped off the bus we were mobbed by hotelliers trying to attract our business.  We should have expected this and had a game plan.  We didn't, so we got caught in their web.  When we were able to have a quiet word, we decided to take one of the busses to check out a room, and if we didn't like it, we were at least now in the hotel district.  As it turns out the hotel was quite good, and the staff extermely friendly.  I was initially hesitant, as it was a little way away from the old city and the bulk of resteraunts but we took it.

The afternoon was spent wandering around the Citidel and imperial palace.  The wall around the citidel was imposing.  It completely surrounds the 2square km area within.  The imperial palace has a further 3m wall with amazing gates and a moat.  At the moment in Central Vietnam they are celebrating 35years of liberation, and at the main entrance a massive stage show was entertaining what looked like a decent portion of the Vietnamese Army and many many high ranking officers.  We sat and watched for a while trying to figure out how we could sneak past and get into the Palace complex.  Eventually we bit the bullet and walked around the side of the stage to the back and got in.

The insides of the Imperial palace have been decimated by a couple of different wars, firstly the French war, and then the American War.  This has meant many of the buildings inside have been destroyed.  What was left standing though was very impressive.  We decided to find the gates shown on the Vietnam special of Top Gear to take some photos.  We didn't end up finding it, but we did spend three hours seeing pretty much everything within the complex.  It was a good way to spend the afternoon.

On the way back to our hotel we had some shopping to do, so we stopped off at a supermarket and noticed a "Lotteria" fast food shop.  We decided to try it out, as we were both exhausted.  We had seen a couple before and they appeared to be a McDonalds clone.  We were right, it was like we were on the set of "Going to America".  Even so, it was a nice escape to something familiar.

Yesterday we went on a DMZ tour.  As the tour guide explained, the Vietnamese people didn't want to remember the war, and that there wasn't much left to look at.  Certainly none of the American bases.  Regardless, we saw the Vinh Moc tunnels (where villages went to escape American shelling, a system of tunnels similar to the Cu Chi tunnels, but much more comfortable (taller wider etc...).  On the way back to where we would be having lunch we drove over the Ben Hai river which formed the border between the North and the South.  There were a couple of remnants left including some guard towers, and speaker stacks.  After lunch we headed west along Highway Nine, which was heavily fortified by the Americans during the war.  We stopped at a couple of former bases including, Doc Mieu, The Rockpile, and Khe Sahn.  There was a small museum at Khe Sahn with some US military equipment and what not.  The visitor book at Khe Sahn was probably the most interesting thing there.  Unsurpisingly there was a battle of words between Americans and other nations (the Americans blasting the exhibit as being biased) We also saw the Dakrong Bridge which during the war formed part of the Ho Chi Minh trail which supplied the Viet Cong from the North.

Anyways, it was a long day and we were glad to be back in our hotel.  We grabbed a quick meal from a resteraunt at the end of the street and called it a night.

We are travelling to Hanoi by plane tonight.  It was that or a 14hour train ride, we chose plane.  It is pouring with rain for the first time of our visit so we are a bit lost on what to do...

Cheers,

Michael

ps. I will upload photos later, I can't do it from here :(