We arrived off the bus in Hue from Hoi An in the evening around 7pm. This would be one of our shortest coach journeys only about 4 hours to our relief. We checked into our hostel (Only $5 each per night, cheapest so far) dumped our stuff down and headed out to explore a little, whilst also looking for somewhere to eat. We found a nice little place although perhaps a little pricey but still good food. We left there and headed back to the hostel as I was not feeling too great.

The next morning we got up quite early (well for us anyway!) about 9ish and headed to the Citadel. The Citadel is surrounded by a wall 2 km square, and surrounded by a large moat. Inside the citadel was the Imperial City, with a perimeter of almost 2.5 kilometers this was used as residence for the Nguyen imperial family.

We decided we were going to just walk around the Citadel grounds although large thought it would be nice and some much needed exercise. However as soon as we got inside the walls of the citadel we were pestered to get a cyclo (bike with a comfy seat on the front). The guy was absolutely relentless, he spent a good 10 minutes trying to convince me and Laura to get on his bloody bike, I wish he would of got on his bike and done one! Although having said that as soon as he was about to go the heavens opened. At this point we reconsidered and decided that for $3 each we would get a cyclo tour and let them take us around the citadel. The tour was actually alright and the place was a lot bigger than we expected, we would not of covered too much on foot. The citadel is strange in that it's almost a small town inside a city as there are shops, homes, lakes, open space within it's walls.

Our guide also was happy to take photos so all in all I thought it was ok. The tour came to an end and we got out of our cyclos, I went to pay him the agreed $3 each and he was like "Oh no no no, more than that" I thought you cheeky b*****. So after 5 minutes of arguing, we managed to agree a deal. We gave them a dollar more each and got them to take us back across the river.

Once getting across the river we again get out of the cyclos and the cheeky b***** then asks "One more dollar Sir, good for you good for me!" I thought in what way is this good for me? We got out and walked off.

We then had a quick look round the market, which again as previous markets we have been to sold everything you can imagine more or less. We then headed back to the hostel to get the night bus onto Hanoi.

So that's it for Huế, all in all I would say that it has a few interesting palaces and temples but it's probably not the place you would need much more than a day or so. Having said that we probably didn't see all there is to see in Huế but enough I imagine to get the jist of the place.

James & Laura xxx