We are now in Hue and my God is it hot - 39 degrees!! We arrived at about 6pm on Tuesday evening. Just in time for a shower and some grub!

Hue is a funny old place! It used to be the capital of Vietnam many years ago but yet there doesn't seem to be any real centre to it. There is the Imperial city which is where the emperor used to live with his crew until it got bombed in 1945, outside of it is the Citadel where the ordinary people lived at that time (they have lots of restrictions!) and over the bridge is the normal town. That's where we're staying!

Our hotel is right on the perfume river so we have a lovely view and we are pretty much central to everything is around us.

When we arrived we went for a snack to the Mandarin cafe where the owner is a photographer and has many of his pictures of everyday life in Hue on the walls of the cafe and also for sale in all shapes and sizes. We bought some postcards which are really nice as it is hard to catch everyday life ourselves when we're on a bus or a boat!

Yesterday we went on a tour of the city that was organised by the hotel. It started off at the hotel's dock where we boarded a boat on which a family lived and sailed up the river. Most families in Hue live on boats; many are very small and are just made out of wood with a tiny rounded hut for shelter. This one was luxury in comparison.

Our first stop was the Heavenly Pagoda (yes another one!). We heard the story of how it was build and saw the car in which one of the monks had burned himself alive in protest of the Buddhist religion being discriminated against...nice!!!

Next was the tomb of the second emperor of Vietnam. He came to power when he was 29 and died when he was 49 because he was a very "busy" man as we were told! He had 500 girlfriends and 146 children! He was only allowed to pick one queen so she was his favourite and the other 499 women were made live outside of the temple and when they wanted to see him, their family had to bribe his guards. He always had five around him to cut his toenails for him and fan him, that sort of thing! Apparently three in five got pregnant and the guards had to check when the emperor had last seen them to make sure the child was his. We were told in the Imperial city there were lots of "activities" with his girlfriends.

Next was the twelfth emperor's tomb and it's clear to see there is still a little contempt for him!! We were told, "he did nothing for our country, he was a puppet emperor only concerned with appearance" and the big one...he worked for the French!!!! His tomb was very colourful and he's the only emperor that it is known exactly where his body is (under a life size statue of himself!). The ceiling was painted by someone with his toes - he painted a massive ceiling of dragons with his feet!!! And they've found some special paint that means spiders can't crawl on it.

Last stop was the Imperial city where the emperor and his crowd lived and worked. We saw a model of it and it was huge but having been bombed there were only four of the main buildings left. We saw the emperor's own temple, the armies quarters where they went to make themselves pretty before meeting the man himself and a temple which was build as a tribute to all of the emperors. Well ten of them, three weren't allowed because of siding with the French etc! They were a little harsh! One guy came to power when he was eight years old and because he got his army to go around killing the French he was exiled there when he was seventeen! When he was 45 he was allowed back to Vietnam but died in a plane crash over Africa.

After we had gone back to the hotel and for nap it was time to be fed! We went to a French restaurant where we had nine courses for three quid (they were small courses!!) and then for a few drinks.

Not done much today because we're being lazy before we have to endure a fourteen hour bus journey to Hanoi for our last stop in Vietnam! Lovely!