so... The overnight train to Hue wasnt too bad, apart from the fact that everywhere was closed because it was the equivalent of new years day, so dinner that night was ritz crackers and a third world version of Laughing Cow cheese corners. I wasnt laughing. lol. Not ideal, but I didnt quite starve to death.

So, that day we took a trip to the Imperial Palace In Hue (pronounced whhheeeeyyyy), which was built by the Vietnamese Royal family before they abdicated after 1945. Its a fairly stunning plot of land, with all different sections for the different levels of social class. It took 90,000 free-labourers 11 years to build the palace and all its surrounds. This fact is slightly shadowed though, because firstly, I reckon us Murphy Men would have built it in about 6 weeks no problem, and secondly, it took the Americans about 6 hours to raze it to the ground during the Tet offensive of 1968!! The tour guide we were with had amazing English, but was very keen on reminding us that the American forces did their best to leave nothing of beauty in the palatial grounds. Quite funny though when he said in his own accent.."american man, before war, he should have sling his hook". Priceless.

Apparently the grounds, which we were walking on by the way, were 95% clear of landmines left in the war. That means for every 100 steps you took, 5 couldve been a bit nasty...I wasnt fancying those odds too much so I went for lunch. That afternoon we saw another temple, this time of a King who was only 5ft2in tall, so he made all the statues and surrounding art, SMALLER than him! Wouldve been perfect for Morgan and Henno, they wouldve felt like giants! lol. It was basically a 17th century version of lego land, but without candyfloss, and a little more sophisticated. Nice though. Western food for dinner that night, my first breakout since I left...but 3 weeks isnt bad.

The next day we drove for 4 hours to Hoi An , which is one of my favourite places so far. Its a quaint little market town on the river, full of stalls and an amazing 3rd world food market, where rats run freely, and butchers have probably never even heard of a fridge. That afternoon I just messed around in the pool at the hotel. The next day I explored town a little more, and found a funfair which was still going on because of the New Year celebrations. It was fairly basic as you can imagine...the darts for the games were wooden, handcarved and used duck feathers as flights. Also there was the mandatory wannabee funny man on the microphone at the dodgems'. These were not your ordinary dodgems' however, as they werent powered by electricity, but by foot,-Fred Flintstone style! Anyway wannabee funnyman said something which made them all look at me and laugh. I reckon it might have been "he aint fitting in one of those cars in a million chinese years"! The best game by far was a type of Roulette, which you would just not get away with in the UK. Basically, a model American warplane from the 60's was mounted on a circulating arm, which made a siren noise and swung round at speed. Around the edge of the board, were all the names of Vietnamese towns, Hanoi, Saigon etc, and the punters placed bets on which town they thought was going to get bombed!! Can you imagine a funfair in the UK basing a game on London boroughs during the Blitz? there would be murders.

So the next day we hired bikes and cycled 3km to the beach. Probably a little too cold to swim so we just messed around with a rugby ball (the shame) and a quality little nerf toy which went miles, and it also fascinated the vietnamese kids who loved it. That night Aaron, from Amarillo Texas (quality) and I, ended up in one of the grottiest little bars I have ever seen. Instead of paint on the walls, it was graffiti, and instead of paintings or art, they had just mounted a rusty old bike on the wall....'ave that Tate Modern. It was a pretty cool place though, full of Aussies and brits, and by the end of the night, the pool table was the main dancefloor. We saw a pure Jackie Chan style fight involving a few local lads with pool cues, table legs, and battons, so we made our way out and home safely but not without a good bit of rubbernecking first.

Sunday I had a nice relaxing day to myself. Slept in, did a bit of shopping, had a swim, beat the locals at pool, and then headed out for an evening of football, firstly watching the scum get beaten by city, which was delightful and then yet another anti-climax from a football match involving the other scum...Chelsea. Nice to have a day off from mad schedules and temples lol.

Today was an early start, met at 8am to go on a 23km bike ride through Hoi An, and the surrounding countryside. Really good to get out of the town and see the real people again. It can be a bit much with the Vietnamese, because unlike the Laotians or Thais, you cannot even go into a shop without being pushed and hassled into buying something. Just for a laugh in one of the shops, I picked up a Cashmere scarf and asked how much. The lady said $45. I managed to barter her down to $9 before walking out in disgust that she would overcharge by that much. It can be annoying too in a shop or hotel where you see a local buy something, and then buy the same thing, and the price doubles. Speaking to other people, they think its because of years of Chinese involvement in Vietnam that the people are money mad, and quite devious compared to other parts of South East Asia. Tiring bike-ride but got some good shots.

Bit of a bummer that my plane to Saigon doesnt leave until 10pm tonight because it means I only have 1 day there tomorrow before moving on to Cambodia, so gonna have to do a lot in one day. I'm up for it though