Our last stop in Vietnam was its cultural capital and ancient imperial city of Hue, 4 Vietnamese hours north of Hoi An. With a beautiful tailored suit and 5 shirts to keep it company boxed and en route to Melbourne, we said farewell to our favourite place in Vietnam.
We finally arrived at our hotel 'Valentine' which was anything but romantic but good value for money. Hue or 'Hugh' as we insisted on incorrectly pronouncing the old capital's name, was a lively blend of friendly locals and backpackers heading in opposite directions of Vietnam. Passing the questionable karaoke bars we settled for the backpacker crowd and went exploring late into the night.
Doing what we do best, hiring scooters and causing a scene at local heritage sites, we headed to the imperial city rebuilt by the Vietnamese and Koreans in the early 1900s for the Nguyen dynasty. Here they held royal ceremonies and entertained visitors with Chinese dance techniques which were probably pretty good. They showed a video as you entered giving tourists a brief history on the era this was first built but we managed to sit through only about 10 minutes before announcing to the rest of the room that it was 'booooring' and getting up to leave. The remaining viewers frowned as they watched us tear around the gardens like little kids while they tried to concentrate on the riveting vid.
As big fans of riverside rooftop bars we spotted one we liked the look of and watched as the sun went down over Hue and our time in Vietnam. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into the next morning....