If anyone feels like being followed by a cyclo driver for an afternoon, Hue is the place to be. The guy hassled me because I was going in a direction other than towards the Citadel, as if there was nothing else to do in this city. Then, after having followed me through a park, told me that this bridge was inaccessible to pedestrians, despite the obvious pavement and about 18 other people walking on it.

But apart from that, Hue was quite lovely. It's a sizeable town, big enough to get lost in, and features a huge walled city, rather like the Forbidden City in China I'm told. This Citadel took me a couple hours to walk around, I saw lots of temples and worship places which were a very welcome break from the sun.

Hue was bombed heavily during the war with America (can't call it the Vietnam war here can we?) so most of it is still under construction. As you leave the main gates and main temple-y bits, there are lots of broken walls and overgrown grass, bricks lying around... Also lying around are Vietnamese construction workers. I saw a handful hanging perilously from a scaffolding but most of them seemed to be hiding in the grass. Maybe this level of enthusiasm is why the place is taking so long to rebuild.

I also hired a guy to show me around the area on his motorbike, so I got to cruise around on a bike all morning! With a helmet, of course, Dad.

We rode through tiny villages, including one specializing in incense-making, saw a Japanese bridge which was full of men napping, saw some tombs and pagodas. We saw monks chanting at one of the pagodas, in their saffron robes. There were a couple young novices in the back, and I was listening to the smallest one belt out the chants completely out of tune, it was very cute.

Para Alina, Guille y Francoise: Hice una gira de Hue con la remera de Las Landas - todavia haciendo publicidad!