Our visit to Hue has been short but very sweet. The day we arrived we found a hotel whIch had been recommended to us, as it had a swimming pool, checked in and jumped straight into the pool as it was so hot and the electric had gone off in the area, so no fans or AC. Graham then went off exploring while I relaxed a little, as the bus journey that morning had not been great (AC was trickling out very slowly, so we were roasting!) He came back having found a cobler to mend his flip flops with glue and stitching for about 10p! We have found a great bar just round the corner from our hotel called DMZ, which plays great music, serves Tiger beer on draught and had great food. Last night we were sitting outside there and an Alsatian tried to hump a very white, well groomed small dog, which looked hilarious! Graham also bought a DMZ T.Shirt from there for about 2.00GBP at last after searching for a vest or T.Shirt for days!

Yesterday we did the DMZ tour (De-Militarized Zone). They picked us up at 6am and we were home about 6.30pm, so we got a full day of war stuff! I must admit a lot of it didn't really mean that much to me, but Graham was very excited and tried to explain the significance of the places we saw. I won't go into all the history, but will just list the places we went to, so those of you who are interested in war stuff will understand the significance. Those of you who aren't, just ignore the next couple of sentences! We started at the Vinh Moc Tunnels. These were made for the local peolpe to live down, so had family rooms, maternity ward etc, and were much bigger in height than the Cu Chi Tunnels. There were also no other tourists there so we weren't rushed through and we got to go through 400 metres of the tunnel system. We then went on highway 1 and saw Dong Ha Town, Hien Loung Bridge, Ben Hai River and Doc Mieu US army base (nothing left there now but a statue). Then in the afternoon we took highway 9 and saw the Rockpile US army base, Dakrong Bridge, part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Ethnic Minority Village and ended at the Khe Sanh US Combat Base and museum. There's not huge amounts to see, as they destroyed all US bases after the war (understandable really) but it was a good day trip for about 6.00GBP each including breakfast and entry to everything. We then went to a reataurant serving their home made beer for about 20p per glass, but unfortunately it was not very good. The local Hue dish I had was great though. It was Steamed rice with shrimp, beef, pork and vegetables served inside a coconut. They steam it like this so you get the coconut taste which is amazing.

Today we have been to the Citadel and the Forbidden Purple City. There are some amazing views of the Perfume River and the citadel, so we have spent the morning walking around, taking in the sites. They are restoring much of the Forbidden City, but there was still plenty to see. We also found a park with lots of tanks etc in, so Graham became very excited at this point, as you could climb all over them. It was like a playground for men, as there were several other men of Graham's age doing the same thing! Unfortunately we are having some problems with our camera (think we've got a virus from uploading photos on various PC's) so that is why there are no photo's up of Hoi An. However Graham has been using his phone to take pictures, so we shall be able to put some up and hopefully get the camera sorted soon, so keep checking back!

We take the night bus to Hanoi tonight, so going to jump in the pool now to cool off in the afternoon heat before our pick up at 5pm. We had some rain yesterday, which was great for our long day trip, but it's back to being hot and sunny again today!

Maggie x