Hue was supposed to be a quick and not very exciting stop, enforced upon us by the bus company we were travelling with, but we actually had loads of fun! The bus from Hoi An was only about 4 hours, strangely stopping at a few odd places along the way. When we finally got off the bus, we accepted the first lift to a decent sounding hotel we came across, which was with a guy called Cuba, great name for a Socialist country! We wedged my rucksack on his bike and Gerry's on his friends and set off for the hotel. Cuba was hilarious, and had a very charming/flirtatious manner calling me "my darling" the whole way there. Once at the hotel, he tried to sell us an afternoon motorbike tour, which we'd been planning on doing anyway so we accepted. It was a a holiday in Vietnam today, and they were all supposed to be relaxing and eating duck (everyone must eat duck or die apparently), but he had lost loads of money betting on Man U to win the Champions league, so couldn't afford to take the day off!

We set off first to a couple of tombs, firstly Khai Dinh, which was an impressive building, but we didn't want to pay to get in, so we just viewed it though the gate. After this we headed for the tomb of Tu Duc, which was much better and worth paying for as it was several building set in beautiful grounds that were great to wander round. We stopped off at a little shop - undoubtedly so the drivers could get a free drink or some other bonus - and we watched some women making incense sticks, which I felt I should buy some of, simultaneously wondering how on Earth I'd stop them from breaking for the next month or so in my backpack! Oh well... Cuba then wanted to take us to his friend's house for some beer and duck, so we accepted, thinking it would be nice to something a bit different! We ended up at a little house alongside a small pond with loads of lotus flowers growing in it. There were about 5 of his (male) friends there and one child, all the women being inside cooking. We felt quite bad as as soon as the food came they made us eat first, always tricky trying to function chopsticks in front of locals! They kept filling up our glasses too with iced beer (iced beer??!) The duck was pretty tasty and we managed to stuff ourselves on a variety of noodles, vegetables, a soup type thing and plenty of duck! Finally we insisted we really should see the Citadel - Cuba tried to argue he could take us tomorrow, but we wanted to do the DMZ tour tomorrow, so instead he gave me his mobile, dropped us at the citadel and told us to ring him when we were done! The Citadel was the old Imperial city and was really interesting to walk around, even with a slight beer-haze! The Forbidden Purple City, formally the private area for the Emperor is now open to the public, so we walked around that for a while too, before trying to function the mobile phone - all instructions in Vietnamese... Finally Cuba and friend arrived and we got them to take us to the Thien Mu Pagoda - an 8 sided pagoda set on a hill by the river. As we arrived the Sun was setting over the hills which made for some beautiful views. Inside the enclosure there were lots of monks walking around and in the temple there were lots of people praying together. It was really peaceful.. At the Pagoda they also have the car that was significant to the war, being the one that one of the monks got out of before setting fire to himself.

We tried to get the guys to take us home next, but instead they took us to another friend's for more food - more duck - and more beer (with ice!) We weren't in the least bit hungry but the food had been prepared by the Grandfather and we didn't want to offend him, so we ate some anyway. I had to get Cuba to take the duck head (plus beak) out of my soup though, there was no way I was eating that! There were loads of cute children at this house, most of whom seemed to like us and smiled, but one of whom we seemed to scare way too much and almost cried every time she saw us!

Finally we got them to take us home, politely declining the opportunity to go and do karaoke with them! We had to get up at stupid o'clock tomorrow for our next tour.

There is not a lot that can be said about the DMZ tour, simply because the guide's English was so bad, we could barely understand her! The Germans behind us were even worse off, it not even being their first language. We drove about 90km out of Hue and stopped at an awful restaurant for our free breakfast - it was rubbish, and we had to pay for a drink - not impressed! After this we visited several sites, important to the war, such as the bridge at the Ho Chi Minh trail, the Rockpile, where the Americans had a base on a hill, and another very biased museum at a base where the Americans had been under siege for a long time. At lunch we were taken back to the same restaurant but most of us rebelled and wandered 10mins down the road. We found a random cafe that definitely was not expecting a group of 10 westerners to turn up, chose our food by pointing at whatever was there, ate a great lunch, then headed back to the bus. The Guide was not impressed, but as lunch was not free, we had every right to chose where to go! In the afternoon we visited another set of tunnels similar to those at Cu Chi, but we were able to go underground further in these ones and more fully appreciate the living conditions they endured. After this, and a few other stops I couldn't explain if I wanted to - I didn't hear what she said! - we were dropped off at the restaurant to wait for our night bus - in torrential rain! Unfortunately, it wasn't where our bus was picking us up, so we waited for it to lighten, before trudging up the road. After dumping our bags we attempted to find the internet - we had 3 hours to kill! - but given our lack of language skills and apparently, the strangeness of our request, it took a lot of walking in the rain before we found somewhere. We were cold and soaked and about to get on a 14 hour bus. Fun!