Hue (pronounced Hoo-ey)

Thursday 20th December - Saturday 22nd December

We check into a friendly guesthouse, with a balcony in our room overlooking a makeshift open air billiards hall.Its dark, so we have a quick reconnaissance of the nearby area and head for a bar called 'Why Not?' for dinner.

Hue's main attraction is a citadel, which makes up most of the town.We walk down to it the following morning, getting plenty more hassle from moto and cyclo drivers on our way - one even rides ahead of us in an attempt to poach us from his friend.

We cross the bridge over the Perfume River, on the way chatting to a stallholder who sells old war memorabilia that his friends collect for him from the jungles of the DMZ (demilitarized zone - not far from here, and ironically a site of some of the most intense fighting of the American War).Since we're not buying, we're not interested one way or the other whether its fake or not, and we enjoy listening to his stories, perched on tiny stools.Dave and I discuss whether the families of the soldiers whose dogtags have been found in the dirt ever knew what happened to their sons, a sobering thought - although the salesman has twigged on to the concept of ebay, and ships his best goods over to a friend in America for auction online, the main source of his income.

Armed with the knowledge of how to spot the difference between a normal American soldier's Ray Ban sunglasses and a general's (its apparently to do with the inscription on the underside of bridge), we head for a drink to a 'Lonely Planet Recommended' café… of course, this being Vietnam, land of the counterfeit, every other shop lays claim to this coveted status!We climb up narrow stairs to the first floor balcony and enjoy watching the overloaded cyclos, bags of fish, cages of birds and general traffic chaos, before setting off again for the citadel.

After a few navigational issues, and plenty more hassle from 'friendly' moto drivers we make it into the haven of the inner citadel.We explore the grand entrance tower and admire the 37 metre tall flag pole, before enjoying a walk around the Mandarins Halls.The Forbidden Purple City is pretty much ruins, although there was a lot of restoration work being busily undertaken across the whole site.The buildings here are very ornate, with mosaics on the walls made from broken pieces of china and glass.The style is very Chinese, and we have noticed this influence more and more as we have travelled north.My favourite part is the dragons in what look like old red phoneboxes on the way out.

A passing moto driver recommends a restaurant for lunch - it's a local Vietnamese place, so we point at things on the menu, nod, smile, and cross our fingers… Dave's stir fried beef is tasty, although my stir-fried vegetables turn out to be stir-fried vegetable, singular… a huge plate of cabbage - tasty but a bit monotonous.

Our next stop is the museum complex, although aside from the American tanks and Vietnamese guns outside, it's a bit of a disappointment - the National History museum is closed for renovation, and the vase exhibition fails to catch our interest.We yield to two polite cyclo drivers and get the pushchair-like rickshaws back to our hotel.

We've arranged to catch another sleeper bus to Hanoi, as its so much cheaper than the train - this time it's a brand new bus, and although its still not the most comfortable, it has a toilet (luxury!), and LCD tv screens which play a mixture of random U-Tube clips in the style of You've Been Framed and karaoke love songs, which the locals on the bus love.A stop start journey with plenty of bustle from passengers getting on and off means that we both arrive in Hanoi the next day bleary eyed and disorientated…