HUE

Arrived at Hue by train (from Danang) which was a pleasant way to travel with superb scenery along the coast. Ignored the ubiquitous taxi, xe om and hotel touts and wandered into town. Settled into a hotel and went out to eat PIZZA!!!!

Hue is an interesting city which was heavily bombed by both the French (in 1954) and later by the Americans / South Vietnamese. The citadel walls, however, remain intact and a number of the palace buildings inside have been restored which means that it required several hours to explore.

Whilst in Hue we took a tour to the DMZ zone which was the boundary between North and South Vietnam and was the most heavily fought over area (fairly obviously). The tour was long (6:30 am to 6;00pm) but interesting despite the fact that most of the sights were simply overgrown fields or hills .... it was hard to imaging the horrors that took place here 3 decades ago. The tunnels of Vinh Moc were very different to those at Cu Chi due to the fact that they were designed to be lived in rather than an aid to infiltration / escape / protection from bombs. they were very much larger and could be walked through if you ducked your head.

The rain caught up with us again but it was still nice to wander the streets. Oooh .... forgot to mention that we had a fantastic curry in Hue .... one of the best that we have eaten outside of India and Nepal.

Left for Hanoi on an overnight sleeper bus.