Our last day of scheduled touring in Vietnam. Today we traveled up the Perfume River on a Dragon boat to visit a pagoda and monastery. We then drove out of Hue to two tombs of emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty who ruled Vietnam from about 1800 to 1953. "Ruled" may be a misnomer since the French were the colonial power in Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) from about 1860 to 1953. The two tombs are quite different. The first, built in the 1840s, was very As...

Left Hoi An this morning. The day was quite gray and we had a downpour during breakfast. However, we were lucky again and the rain stopped before we started touring. Our first stop was Marble Mountain, a group of five mountains composed of marble. Plenty of shops selling marble carvings and statues, some quite large. They will ship to the US for $150 a cubic metre. Lots of caves and Buddha statues, temples and pagodas. Arrived in Hue and toured the Citadel...