26 - 28 February

We arrived in Hue at 9am and neither of us had had much sleep. We booked into the first hotel we saw and spent the day looking around the South Bank of the town. It was much smaller and quieter than busy Hanoi. It was full of nice restaurants and bars, but I need to lay off the beer it doesn't seem to mix so well with my malaria medication, Doxycycline. At least I could have the odd drink though ulike when I was on Malarone, I was ill instantly.

We spent a lot of money on our first day there, we had saved money from our budget because of our trip out to Halong Bay. We bought new Tshirts, bags and shorts. Exactly what we had needed for a while but couldn't afford. It was an early night that night because we had two day trips planned.

We started our the day the following day at 8am with an eight hour tour round the city. We started with the Citadel, where the emporers of Vietnam resided. It was beautiful, but the Americans had bombed it heavily during the war destroying most of it. So it was quite surreal seeing a building or two and then massive gaps inbetween. All that history gone for the sake of propaganda. It was such a shame.

We also went to see Vietnam's most famous pagoda, it was gorgeous there. It was on top of a hill overlooking the river and it was surrounded by glorious gardens. In the pagoda's surroundings it had the burning monks car. During the war they were going to ban the practice of Buddhism, but in protest a monk drove to Saigon, got out of his sat in the lotus postition and burnt himself to death. The image is iconic and is n the front of one of the Rage Against the Machine album covers. Many Buddhists think this saved the religion in Vietnam.

We also saw a Kung Fu show, which was really good and we saw three emporers tombs. They were so beautiful and tranquil. At the end of the trip we got a dragon boat down the river to our hotel and got another early night.

The following day at 5am we got up for our 12 hour tour tour to the de-militarized zone or the DMZ, which is where most of the fighting took place during the war. It was really interesting, but I could barely understand what the lady was saying so Adam kept me up to date as he was listening intently. We saw war memrials and graves of the Viet Cong. We learnt about their struggles instead of what we already know from the American side of things. We were shown where some of the most famous sieges took place and the heavily bombed Ho Chi Minh Trail. We went down the Vinh Moc tunnels where the village of Vinh Moch lived for six years, eating, sleeping and giving birth down there. The tunnels were small and made of clay, deep down, 50m below the surface. It was hot and sticky down and there. It must have been very hard. Along the bus route we saw old machine gun towers with the guns still in them, napalmed hills where nothing could grow anymore and of course people mssing limbs and severly scarred from the atrocities that occured there. The Vietnamese do not speak of the war, but you can tell by the way they word things in museums in the area that vthey are still very angry, but who wouldn't be. They had no right to be there, no wonder they call it the American War. I feel sorry for the American soldiers too because it isn't like alot of them chose to be there either.

Hue despite its size was full of history both old and new and we both loved it here. We are looking forward to a few days without any tours though. We are all toured out!