4hour bus journey to Hue at 7.30am and we arrived and checked into a hotel with ease. Vietnam has by far been the easiest travel experience, but thats probably because the people are more savvy to tourists and see tourism as a proper business. We had heard mixed things about Hue so decided to take a walk around the city to see for ourselves.

We went to the Citadel where the majority of the population reside and is situated on the north side of the perfume river. We decided that we would walk around the old city but as soon as we crossed the bridge we were accosted by two cyclo drivers. After much debate and cost cutting we decided they could pedal us around the citadel to all the free admission places where they gave an explantion of what we were looking at and the history to the different buildings - the only downfall was we had no idea what they were saying so just nodded and smiled and enjoyed being peacefully chauffered around.

So after a not very prductive first day we decided to hire a scooter and do our own thing. After the citadel there isnt much more to see in the city so we headed to the outskirts, using the lonely planet as a guide. Along the way out of the city we unexpectantly picked up a 'guide' - she commented on how good a driver Matt was and asked where we were going then decided to lead the way. Nothing is straight forward with the locals so we were sceptical about her motives. When we got to the section we needed to turn off at, (I was navigating) she was continuing on straight to a different place, near her home. We pulled over and told her that we didnt want to go there as we had a list of places that we wanted to see and that wasnt on it. So she decided to come with us to our first stop Tu Hieu Pagoda. She basically wanted to come with us all day and 'show' us the sights but knowing that she would probably want to be paid at the end we told her we were fine on our own and that she didnt have to come.......awkward! At the entrance to the pagoda we were once again accosted by two very determined women who managed to sell us incense that we didnt want! The temple is located in a pine forest and we had the fortune of watching the monks chant in the temple. We then lit our incense and placed it in the shrine for good luck.

Off on the scooter again to the tomb of Tu Duc, a majestic and serene tomb in the middle of pine trees. Tu Duc was an emperor and designed the tomb for him and his family to live and be buried in. He had 104 wives and countless mistresses but he had no kids as it is thought he became sterile after contracting smallpox. There is a tomb there that is dedicated to Tu Duc but the emperor was never buried there. The site where he was buried is unknown and in order to keep it secret the 200 servants who buried him were beheaded.

After this we headed to an old american bunker that was strategically placed to look over the Mekong and the overlooking mountains.

Back on the bike and after a quick lunch headed to Ho Quyen, an overgrown tiger arena. It was built for the royal past time of watching elephants and tigers face off in combat. The tigers were usually declawed and had their teeth removed so that the elephant, a symbol of the emperor's power, won every time.

We then scooted off to Nam Giao Esplanade which is again in a pine forest and is a three tiered site which was once the most religious one in Vietnam. It was used to make animal sacrifices and elaborate offerings to the All-Highest Emperor. The top tier represented heaven, the middle one represented earth and the bottom tier was humanity.

So after a full day of scooting around we headed back to the hotel where we had already checked out as we had booked the night bus to Hanoi at 5pm. We sat in a restaurant and had a drink and a bite to eat and got chatting with Catriona from Perth who was on our bus that night. The bus was a sleeper and it was full to the point that vietnamese men were sleeping on the floor. This only proved to be an issue when at 4am I had to go to the toilet and found the rocking bus, the climb down from the bunk and the pitch black to be a bit of an obstacle course. The journey itself was OK and we met a few more people who were staying in the hostel we were staying at so we had a ready formed group for when we arrived in Hanoi at 10am.

S&M