Hue & the Easy riders...............

Hi all

We have been desperately trying to post to the blog since we got to Vietnam, but the Internet here does not like us publishing anything. I had hoped that this was just a Hanoi thing, but here in Hue we have the same problem. We can do email & write a post, but try to publish or go on Facebook the system just crashes and burns. So at some point all of these posts will find their way onto the www, & you will all know we are still alive and  working on the local beer lake!.

Today we arrived in Hue after a ridiculously long train journey from Hanoi. As always we were told it would arrive at 7.00 am and it finally pulled in at 12.20!! However unlike a bus the train does afford you the luxury of walking around without having to stop and if you position yourself carefully a fantastic view of the countryside. Most of the countryside was still flooded following the monsoon storms two weeks earlier, but it was still great to see everyday life just happening............

Luckily we had already booked a hotel with a pick up at the station so managed to avoid the inevitable hotel scrum & once we had stocked up on some carbs decided the only way to get our sightseeing finished in the reduced time we had left available was to enlist the help of an easy rider. These are basically local guys who you can hire with their motorbikes to take you sightseeing & it really is on a 1-2-1 basis and its really cheap at around $9 per day or part thereof! First stop was the temple of the last emperor & I have to say they really go to town... A huge series of buildings, which are usually laid out in a similar configuration to the palace they live in with the living quarters serving as the tomb and the alter. It was so detailed with loads of Chinese influences, the replica representation of the army & the 3 dimensional porcelain friezes inside the tomb and alter. The next stop was the tomb of Tu Doc who ruled from 1820 to 1840  much older and had suffered the ignominy of being bombed first by the French and then by the Americans. The other problem facing it was the craftsmanship, although it was painstakingly put together in infinite detail the timescale for obvious reasons was quite rushed and therefore the standard of the materials were not really sustainable. There was quite a lot of renovation work being carried out,which was great to see.....  The penultimate stop was the citadel itself or rather the citadel within the citadel, luckily for Dean the rules of entry no longer required all the males entering the palace to be Eunuchs!!

So thanks for looking when we finally get this on-line.....

Hugs Sara