Early start to be ready in time for our super discounted bus tour of the city. Brekkie was about what we anticipated and since our expectations had been lowered so far, we've decided to ditch the hotel buffet brekkie for the rest of our stay here and go out to some local restaurants instead. Their menu's look good and are affordable. With a country so abundant in fresh fruit and veg, hotels serving reconstituted fruit drink just doesn't cut it. Everywhere else has had beautiful fresh juice every day so we'll be telling the travel agent not to recommend this one.

We were downstairs in the lobby at 7:30am as instructed and the tour guide came and got us around 8am. We were lead across the road to the tour office to wait for the bus. It arrived not long after and we drove around to another couple of hotels until there were about 30 of us. The tour guide then gave us the run down of where we would go and what we would see and he would be collecting the entry money for each exhibit up front. WHAT???? When we booked the tour they said everything was included except entry to the citadel which was 80,000 dong each. Turns out we needed 290,000 dong each. Being seriously strapped for cash whilst we waited for the money to come through to our cash passport, we had no option but to opt out of all but a couple of the destinations.

We were fuming because the people at the hotel reception were very adamant that everything was included except the citadel entry. We only took this particular tour because it was a bit cheaper than having a private tour and with the cash shortage, we needed to be a bit frugal. Steve was sure that karma was kicking us in the arse because we'd done a runner on that massage lady in Hoi An. Either that, or she was a Vietnamese witch and had placed a curse on us. With all the hassles from the previous night, the crappy brekkie and the little surprise with the tour, we were all just ready to pack up and leave Hue and write the whole town off as a bad idea.

The bus pulled up at the first tomb - Minh Mang Tomb. Everyone trailed into the monument except the Taylors who loitered around the entrance and took photos of the outside of the tomb walls. Next stop was Khai Dinh Tomb and again, the Taylors waited patiently for the guided tour to finish.

Next stop was a martial art display which fortunately we had enough cash to provide entry. This dojo taught a Vietnamese style of Kung Fu and Tai Chi and the performances were very impressive. Steve got a lot of it on video and suspect that the extreme team at the HVMAC dojo back home might like to see it.

Tu Duc's tomb was interesting. He was the fourth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty. Having been aflicted with smallpox as a child, was rendered infertile and was unable to conceive children. Despite this, he had a hundred wives and over 700 concubines who were tended by royal eunuchs. His tomb is a large area of temples, crypts, ponds and various other buildings and structures. It is very impressive and well worth extra time to wander around.

The bus naviagated the back streets of Hue, not far from the hotel, to a restaurant offering a buffet lunch. The spread was actually pretty good with plenty of variety although some of the dishes were a little tough or had gone cold. We were pretty hungry by this time so it was ok.

Next was the royal citadel and the forbidden palace. This place is massive and we hope to make it back before we leave. This was the main residence of the king, his wives, concubines and servants as well as the centre for all commerical, political and military business. Occasionally the king would leave the palace in plain clothes and walk amongst the people. Trips to the countryside would often result in him coming back with another girl that caught his eye to join his harem. Much of the palace was destroyed during various wars but the guide informed us they're planning on rebuilding nearly all of them by 2030. The workers were busy on one section of it and didn't take too kindly to Steve filming them.

The bus took us up the road to a buddhist pagoda where we discovered the story behind many of these fierce statues we've been seeing. Apparently buddha converted 18 pirates to good and they devoted their lives to protect him. At this pagoda there were figurines of all 18 of them. We all piled onto a dragon boat for a relaxing trip back to near the hotel, and by this time we were sweaty and grimy so the first thing on the agenda was the pool, but not before sorting out the bill at the restaurant from the night before.

On the way we stopped at an ATM and attempted to withdraw 5M cash. It failed so we figured it must not have been transferred yet. Daniel suggested that the ATM might not dispense that much (the error messages at the ATM's here are very vague).

The ladies at the restaurant literally jumped up out of their seats with a look of amazement when we walked in the door. It is highly likely that they weren't expecting to see us again over a $25 bill. We attempted to try the card again but the issue was the same as before - their eftpos machine was locked up and was nothing to do with our card. We said we'd be back with cash either tonight or tomorrow. On the way back we tried the ATM and sure enough, the maximum was 2M so we did 2 transactions and were finally back in business. This cash passport card has been the bane of our trip and seriously requires careful management.

After a refreshing swim, we went across the road to the DMZ Bar. We'd promised the overly chipper waitress the night before that we'd come back when we had cash and with all the bad luck we'd been having lately we decided not to tempt fate. Steve and Sue ordered two stiff drinks to soothe rattled nerves and Daniel had a mocktail. Steve made a dash down the road to finally put an end to "The Never Ending Dinner" from the night before. The eftpos machine had been fixed but rejected the card. No more! He paid in cash and put an end to the matter.

On the way, while Steve was walking down the street, a guy pulled up on a motorbike and asked him if he wanted a girl. "Very cheap, give you good massage". He went on his way when Steve said his wife was waiting for him down the street.

The DMZ Bar had a deal with cocktails (buy 3 get the 4th free) so we set about to make use of that. The waitress was very happy that we were cashed up and kept em coming. Daniel was having fun taking photos with a long exposure on the street. With all the traffic coming past, he got some really good ones.

Steve offered Daniel a sip of his cocktail. occasionally he'd have a little sips of Sue's which were fairly mild. Steve's cocktail however was fairly strong and when Daniel took a good slurp, his eyeballs nearly popped out. He coughed and spluttered and went red in the face, protesting that it was disgusting. Steve and Sue laughed their heads off.

As the DMZ Bar cranked up, Daniel had seen enough so he went back home. The vibe in the bar was fantastic and just what we needed. Tables are setup on the street so pedestrians have to pick their way through the throng of people. The walls inside are covered in deliberate graffiti from patrons past. We saw one guy put his own moniker on the roof with a thick black marker, precariously balanced on a table top. Lots of scribbles from Aussies too. The area is a back packer haven so it seems very popular.

Refreshed and buzzing from the cocktails and loud music, Steve and Sue retired to the hotel.