Sin Chow 13th November 2007

Our knowledge of Vietnamese language has greatly improved over the last few days. Hello, thank you, how are you, oh my gosh, happy buddha to you, no thank you, all roll of the tongue like something that doesn't roll easily. Still, the locals appreciate (we think) the attempts!

Day 1 in Hue saw us visit the Citadel. Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam, and the King and his entourage lived at the citadel. See pictures for the grand buildings, the lakes were full of giant carp. It starting raining the moment we arrived.....

That afternoon, we went on a river boar cruise down the Perfume River. Although normally blue, it is brown with sediment washed from the upstream hills. We stopped to look at some pagodas, which were nice and connected to a monastery.

The next day, we went to one of the many tombs of the king. That is to say, his is buried somewhere in the grounds; to protect him from robbers the staff who buried him killed themselves to keep his location a secret. Hope they moved away from the grave first! It was still raining hard at this point and had been throughout the night. Ian brought a traditional vietnamese tourist hat from a nearby stall with Lins treating herself to a new pair of thongs (flip-flops). Lunch was served at a buddhist nunnery. We drove back to the hotel and our tour leader was met by a ruffled hotel manager, who was screaming get out we must get out. (Exaggeration!). But seriously, the hotel was as risk of flooding because the river was about to burst its banks and we had to back our bags and we left 10 minutes later for a new hotel which we were assured would be safe. We expected to be taken to higher ground but instead were taken to a hotel with a second and third floor. See photos. By the time we had unpacked our bags, the river had indeed burst its banks.

We've spent the last few days trapped in Hue due to closed roads. We can venture out of the hotel to the pizza parlour (one of few places open), wading through knee deep brown river water. The only thing to keep ourselves entertained is to drink alcohol and watch the 2 channels of Vietnamese TV. Rumour has it we could be out today, the rest of the group are trying to get their own earlier flights out of here.

We are safe, and for the locals, its just life as normal!

Oi Chi Oi