Boy have we had a hectic time here!

We came to Hue on the day bus through the usual amazing and diverse landscape - we drove along the coast, over mountains, alongside paddy fields, through jungles even driving through a huge tunnel!.

The reason for coming to Hue is to do 2 tours - one looking at ancient Hue and one at wartime Hue. As usual we decided to get a few prices for the tours so asked our accommodation to give us a quote - the tours were quite competitive but the cost of the bus to Hanoi was too expensive so we said we'd leave it. Worried that she was going to lose all the sales she agreed to forego her commission and book the Sinh cafe bus (who we've used throughout Vietnam to date) for the same price as if we'd done it ourselves - sorted! (or so we thought.....)

We arrived in Hue on Valentines Day and so having bumped into a Texan couple, Christian and Amanda who we had intially met in Da Lat, we went for a romantic meal at 'Little Italy' and what a feast - they had a special heart shaped pizza with a topping of olives, carrot, pineapple and chicken - mmmmm!! As it was a special day we decided to pick something from the menu - nothing to do with that weird topping - honestly! We ended up having a great evening.

Day 1

Today we did the Hue city tour incorporating the Citadel, 3 Emporers tombs, a trip down the perfume river (which doesn't smell of perfume) and a pagoda. Our tour guide was quite interesting as he told us the more gossipy ancient history. Here's a taster:

The 2nd Emporer had more than 400 wives and 142 children
The 4th Emporer had approximately 100 wives but no children - oh dear!
The 12th Emporer had 1 wife and 1 child but really quite liked men.
To become a high ranking officer meant you had to enter the forbidden city where the King's concubines lived so unfortunately to achieve this position you had to become an eunoch!

See what I mean....

It was a slighly rushed day but I really enjoyed it but I think David was a bit bored really.

Day 2

Today we visited the de-militarised zone (DMZ). Our guide had a good command of English but unfortunately her accent and pronunciation were shocking so most of the time no-one had any idea what she was actually saying!

The three key things we saw on this trip were:

Rockpike - a mountain where US soldiers were airlifted to have some R & R. As they were working in such a dangerous area the only place they could relax was on top of the highest mountain in the area. They even built restaurants, bars and social clubs on the top of there.The only way to visit this area still is by helicoptor but that was a little beyond our budget.

Ta Con Air Base - described as hell on earth this was a US air base near to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We saw the original bunkers, airstrip, abandoned tanks and CH-47 helicoptors.

Vinh Moc village - Facing heavy bombing from the US the villagers built a series of tunnels over a period of 20 months to live in. The tunnels were built over 3 levels - level 1 for fighting and living, Level 2 for living and level 3 is for storage and safety during bombing. The tunnels are amazing and remain the same as when they were left. Approximately 350 people lived in the tunnels for 6 years - there was even a maternity ward down there. The whole trip was definitely worth it.

Rather than taking us all the way back to Hue the bus dropped us off at a village whereour connecting bus to Hanoi stops for a toilet break. I forgot to mention how cross David was on one of the nights when he discovered that instead of booking us onto Sinh cafe as requested and promised we had been booked onto a Camel Tours bus. We knew that the bus was going to the same place and we were shown photos so knew that the bus was essentially the same but it was the principle. As David told them they had lied to us! The good news is that the whole trip went fine - the bus picked us up at the correct place, the driver kicked some random people out of our beds so we could lie down and we arrived in Hanoi at 6am.