Day 21 Hue.

A long sleep last night, in bed by 9.0 pm and asleep by 9.15 pm! I am still recovering from waking up at 2.45 am to listen to the City vs. Swindon game.

Last night we enjoyed another cocktail (a 'Tom Collins' for the connoisseurs) on the hotel rooftop bar. Compared to the Bitexco bar in Saigon, it was a bargain at a mere $4 compared to $11 but it was only on the 11th floor compared to the 51st floor There again what is the small matter of 40 floors between friends, especially when the 11th floor is as about as tall as buildings come in Hue.

Our hotel is a very smart boutique hotel to the extent that they have a bell boy in full bell boy uniform. He is a cheerful soul, bounding down the steps to meet us like a playful puppy. In fact the whole hotel reminds us of the 'Grand Budapest hotel'. So much so that Julie is going down to reception tomorrow, armed with a black felt pen to draw on the missing moustache on the bell boy.(For those of you who dont know the film they should watch it, its a gas!)

Today we are 'saddling' up for the morning, as our guide notes put it. I have reassured Julie that this is a bike ride and not a horse ride, although I was a little perturbed at the thought as Hue is a leafy but bustling town. In fact perturbed turned out to be the wrong word - a better word should have been terrified - but more about that later.

I was even tempted to cancel our sightseeing and stay in and play with my new toy - the shower pod. Our hotel is quite upmarket (or has those pretensions) and, like most hotels, provides small branded soaps, shower caps, toothbrushes etc. They also provide body lotions named along the theme of the elements of the world. For example, in the shower pod there is a lotion called 'Fire' and a lotion called 'Wind'. I am convinced that if I can find the lotion called 'Earth', then I will have a full 5 piece band from the 70's, belting out 'Boogie-wonderland' in the shower pod with me, when I next shower. There certainly is room. (For the younger readers 'Earth, Wind and Fire' are a funk/ disco band from 1970s).

However, having found the lotion we couldn't fit the stack of Marshall amps into the shower pod and I had to apologise to the band and go on the bike ride instead.

So, the bike ride - our chance to experience traffic management not from the perspective of a pavement user but as a road user. I now understand why so many people ride on the pavement - you are a darned sight safer there than on the road. Our guide took us across the Truong Tien bridge, designed by Gustave Eiffel (of the Eiffel tower fame), at the peak of rush hour ( we travelled across it at rush hour and not it was designed at rush hour, that is). Built in 1899, it is in desperate need of widening!

Still we made it safely to the imperial palace, a replica of the forbidden city in Bejing and now largely restored after heavy hand to hand fighting during the Vietnam war. Then we rode a further 5km to an ancient pagoda (11km in total), now wiser and more experienced in the rules of the road in Vietnam. For example we now know you are only allowed to pull away if you don't look, you can only turn right if you carve up someone on your inside and motorcyclists with a lamp standard and three chickens on board have right of way.

After our pagoda tour, we swap our bikes for a safer mode of transport and head, firstly for lunch, then to two tombs of deceased kings. These mausoleum's are not particularly old in that the oldest was built around 1820 but it was interesting to see one tomb where the king was popular and another who was a puppet king for France and a bit of a waster.

Then back to the hotel to chill and decide where to eat. Oh decisions, decisions!!