Alison: Our next destination was Hue which isn't far north of Hoi An. The main tourist attraction here is the huge citadel (city walls) in the centre of town. The perimeter of the walls is roughly 10km and a sizeable proportion of the Hue population reside inside these walls. There is a second citadel within the citadel and this is called The Imperial City. Many of the country's most powerful emperors lived here. There are many palaces and museums in The Imperial City. There is also the remains of a further citadel....a citadel in a citadel in a citadel....talk about paranoid! We spent a day walking around the Imperial City and that was enough for us. It was similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing but nowhere near as grand. Outside of the walls, the town is pretty average. There is a very large school that is famous in Vietnam for many powerful people attending. We were allowed to go and look around it at lunch time and have fun pretending to be teachers...I was forced to give Nigel a detention! There are several different pagodas and monuments that you can see, and you can also cruise on the Perfume River which runs through the town.

Hue was where we were to spend Nigel's birthday. Unfortunately it was a bit spoiled because we were on the second day of a hangover! We haven't really drank that much since we've been away but a couple of days before the main event we went a bit over the top. The backpacker area in Hue is quite lively and we heard several people compare it to Spain....not in a good way! We decided to check it out. Three bottles of wine later (each!!!!) we were not a pretty sight. I was unable to get out of my chair, whereas Nigel had the opposite problem and was unable to stop strutting his stuff on the dance floor! John Travolta eat your heart out :-) On his actual birthday we rented bikes out and cycled around the city. The traffic is very busy outside the citadel but we coped pretty well. Cycling is a good way to get around and see the sights in Vietnam. In the evening we just had a few quiet drinks. The next day we were up at the crack of dawn for a mammoth train journey to our next destination.....