Miles to Mekong: Tombs & Monuments

Monday 31st Dec - On a rainy dull day in Hue we hopped on a bus to do "the tour". The Pagoda, three tombs of past emperors, a temple, the Citadel ie the former palace and grounds, and a small village where they make incense sticks and cone hats. Seemed a simple plan on paper but as we are discovering, in Vietnam what you are supposed to get doesn't happen quite the way it is meant to. Our bus changed to a very slow dragon boat down the river, stopped off at the Pagoda, a Garden House (that's an old house with a very nice garden) and an old temple before lunch on the boat. Then we changed to another bus and visited the 3 tombs. Very impressive buildings and grounds. One tomb had mosaics all over the walls that took 6 years to complete. At the last one Lozza dressed up as the Emperor, that in itself caused a lot of amusement for the girls who were dressing him because of his beard. Did not have time to go to the Citadel but we did get to see them making incense sticks.

Tuesday 1st Jan - After a long sleep in from our late night celebrations, we wandered across the road to breakfast, then across the river to the Hue market - WOW - if I could only bring home a couple of truckloads of material. Lozza tried very hard to steer me away from the fabric section and the ladies tried very hard to sell me everything and dropped the price every time I said no. I didn't buy anything. The meat and fish section was interesting, they really do eat every single part of an animal. Loads of great bags, clothes, shoes, coats, need to come back with empty bags. But then Singapore is the same and it's on the way home.....hmmmm.

We went to the Citadel today, amazing. It is being restored after being badly damaged and parts completely destroyed during various wars. It is an amazing collection of buildings, well worth restoring and a visit if ever in Hue.

Our last night in Hue, tomorrow we catch the overnight sleeper bus to Hanoi.