The bus ride from Hanoi to Hue was probably the worse journey we have undertaken so far. We were picked up in a minivan to collect our tickets and were then put back on the minivan. Everybody in the van had chosen the sitting bus tickets (rather than sleeper bus where you get a bed for more money) as well so Sarah and I were worried that we had a further 13 hours in these cramped conditions. The relief was obvious when we were dropped off at an air conditioned coach!

After a couple of hours both Sarah and I (mainly Sarah after she had fallen down the stairs on the boat in Halong Bay) were in pain but after a small disagreement (argument) decided to go on to Hue. At five in the morning I gave up on the idea of sleep and was just waiting to arrive. Although it gives a perspective on Vietnam I would not have got as all the families were having breakfast at 4:30 in the morning before a day in the fields. We really don't know what hard work is (me especially).

We checked into the first hotel we came across, mainly out of exhaustion but also just being fed up, and went into town to get some breakfast. This ended up being a day of pottering around and getting a couple of much needed supplies (T-shirts, wash stuff and a bag[!]).

The next day we were up for a day long tour of the city, which we thought (wrongly!!??) started at 8:30. We were waiting for our breakfast in a cafe across the road from our pick up point when the bus arrived. I never thought I'd end up eating a scrambled egg sandwhich out of plastic pots on a bus in Vietnam when we started this trip.

Our first stop was the citidel in which the forbidden purple city is (same as Beijing but bombed by the American's so the buildings are mostly gone). Most of the city is gone apart from two or three buildings and the walls. Next on the tour was a garden village (where the Mandarins lived, they were the educated aids to the emperor), where we saw a kung fu show (what this has to do with a village we will never know!). This show was really good in bits and awful in others (one guy bending a sharp spear with his throat while someone broke breezeblocks on his back with a sledge hammer, to a guy missing kicks at slates).

This was was followed by a trip to the heavenly lady pagoda which is reputedly the most holy temple in Vietnam. The car of the monk who burnt himself to death outside government offices in protest at the treatment of Buddhists is there (the monk on the cover of the rage against the machine album).

We also saw two tombs for previous emperors which were very impressive for different reasons. One was built so from above it resembled the emperor with lakes for arms and legs, buildings for trunk and a round tomb for the head (which has never been opened to preserve memory of the emperor). The other was built on the side of a mountain and the scenery was unbelievable.

After such a busy day it was decided that an early night was necessary, especially as we were up at five the next morning to go to the demiliterized zone (DMZ) to look at some relics and areas of the bigger clashes of the Vietnam (American) war.

This was an interesting tour as we were picked up at six in the morning and driven for three hours to get our breakfast (bageuttes again!). The next area we were taken to was a town that was used as a base for the American's (was now just a town!) in which we were not allowed to get off because of the risk of unexploded mines. Even then the locals are still tending to the endless paddy fields of the region.

After this we were taken to two memorial statues, one to the guerilla fighters from the North and the other to the reunifying of families after the war (as a lot of people from the South sneaked to the North to help them in the fight as they were so brutally treated).

The next stop was the Vinh Moc tunnels in which an entire village lived for six years during the war. There was also a group of North Vietnamese soldiers who had dug trenches to fight the enemy. These tunnels were dug out of the clay which made the wholecomplex extremely hot and sweaty (everybody was drenched by the time they emerged). They were (at the most) two feet wide and four foot tall so they were also very cramped and to think an entire village lived in this cramped space for six years!!!! Some people (namely the elderly and children) never left the tunnels the whole time, and some emerged blind (from living wioth no light) and death (from the sounds of the bombs landing above). There was even 17 children born in there in a "Hospital Room" that was smaller than a cupboard.

After lunch it was time to look at the Ho Chi Minh trail (either jungle or a highway they have built on one the roads the North Vietnamese built during the war) and on to Ta Con airbase and the Khe Sanh combat base. The Americans took these and very quickly regretted it as they came under constant attack (an American plaque claims it to be "Hell on Earth"). In the museum it was pretty obvious that the feeling towards the Americans is still pretty hostile, with plaques under some of the pictures mocking American soldiers hiding from view ("The Americans Panicing!!", and "What was Johnson thinking!!") next to pictures of the Vietnamese claiming "The glorius liberation army".

One of the enduring images I will have of the tour is the hillsides. Every hill is covered in jungle apart from where the Americans have napalmed or dropped Agent Orange (defoliation chemicals). This would become standard for all of Vietnam though. These areas stand out like sore thumbs as absolutely nothing grows!! It is sobering to see. Also there are so many people who are missing limbs or severly scarred from the war that you.....

cannot help but why?