Another Vietnamese town to visit called Hue situated about half way down the east coast, bit of a journey to get here but first impressions were good upon arrival. Once settled into our hotel it was time for some exploring and with the imperial city just a short journey across the river we thought we'd start there, to cross the river we jumped onto a dragon boat which sailed us across for a few pence. The city its self was built inside a larger city and this was were the royal emperor would have held parliament meetings and large celebrations in the late 19th century, unfortunately when the Americans bombed they wiped the majority of it out, well worth seeing though. Next we hired a couple of taxi motorbikes and headed to the beach about 18k out of town, the beach was massive and stretched as far as the eye could see, the only problem being we were the only ones on it.

Once back at the hotel we booked ourselves onto the DMZ (Demilitarised zone) tour and headed out for some grub at the rivers edge, food was good although the large rats running around didn't impress us to much.

An early start in the morning to catch our pickup for the tour and a long bus journey to our first stop which was the start of one of Ho Chi Minh's famous trails used in the war to transport troops, weapons ect to the south. Next stop was Khe Sanh combat base where the Americans planned a lot of their war efforts, just a museum now but we got a historylesson on our way through, this place was also known as "hell on earth" as there were aprox 30,000 troops from either side killed here before the Americansfinally fled in 1969. On to the highlight of the tour next, the Vinh Moc Tunnels used by the Vietcong who lived here for around six years. The tunnels were tiny and no chance were we standing up straight in them, they were carved from solid rock and the deepest part being 23meters under ground, it took 18 months to make and housed up to 200 people, the living conditions must have been terrible but they survived by kitting the tunnels out with a well, maternity ward, meeting rooms for teaching children and military meetings. Defiantly an eye-opening and interesting experience.

Our last full day in Hue we decided to take it easy and as it was Lynne's 30th bday we got ready for some celebrating, we went out to a nice restaurant for tea and then onto a local bar called Brown eyes were we'd made a few friends the previous night, armed with a birthday poster we set about having a great nights crack and some locals took us for noodles after before kindly taking us home on the back of scooters.

The next destination on our journey is Hoi An just a short journey south so keep an eye for another update soon, unfortunately due to some pickpocket delving into Colins pocket and swiping the camera we've no pics for Hue or Hoi An.

We will bounce back with snaps eventually though.
John and Colin