Hue to Hoi An

Hey guys, we went back and put up phots of ViengXai if your interested and some more in Hanoi too!

From Hanoi we booked these nifty little open bus tour tickets, where for a one off fee you can travel all along the coast of Vietnam to SaiGon, getting on and off along the way.

From Hanoi we went on an overnight bus to Hue- the old royal capital.We got there at 7.30 in the morning. So did the rain, which was nonstop all day. So instead of seeing the sights by motorbike or walking we opted for the dry option of a minivan.

The first stop was the royal citadel, built in 1804 which was very impressive. We learnt about all the kings, who had ruled from there for over 100 years. Many of them died before they were 50 of illness or were assasinated. One of the kings sired 150 children! (He had a harem, it wasn't one poor queen.)

We also saw the tomb of MinhMang who ruled from 1820 to 1840.

He had all these cool stone warriors and elephants to protect his tomb

The tomb of KhaiDinh(1916-1925) was the most elaborate and impressive and probably our favourite, a crazy mix of French, christian, Buddhist and Confucian architecture. And the most amazing tile murals on the inside. Apparently he was not a well loved King as he cared more for his frivolous taste rather then his subjects.

Thien Mu Pagoda
We saw a few other temples, and learnt how to make incense and the conical hats all Vietnamese wear .

We only stayed for that one day in Hue, getting the bus the following morning to Hoi An.

Hoi An is UNESCO listed town for it's well preserved yellow painted shop fronts and Chinese, Japanese, European influenced architecture. It was an international trading port from the 17th century. There are also a million and one tourists, 500 tailors, 499 souvenir and craft shops.

With it still raining we spent most days alternating between sitting in cafes while it rained and wandering around.

One night wandering around an alley looking for dinner, a little old Vietnamese granny beckoned us to her cafe where she sat us at the little kiddie tables and then disappeared for ages. We were getting up ready to leave when she came out carrying a huge tray of food, which she proceeded to assemble and hand feed us. We found out later it was thit nuong (grilled spiced pork on a stick) which she pulled off and put in banh xeo (rice crepe) with prawn omelette and mung beans and lettuce and herbs. She wrapped it all up and even dipped it in the sauce for us. She just kept on making the rolls and giving them to us beaming, then disappearing and bringing out more. She didnt know any English and we knew minimal Vietnamese so we just used hand signals. But it was probably one of the best meals we had in Vietnam in that little back alley.

One morning we got up at the very unrespectable hour of 5.00am to go see the Myson Cham ruins at sunrise. The ruins of temples were from the 7th century and pretty awesome to see. There was only 8 of us on the whole site, and you could hear the jungle waking up, there were monkeys howling and insects buzzing, mist clearing.

The Chams were a Hindu worshipping neighboring empire to the Khmers building the Angkor empire, and although they were enemies their architecture is very similar and I would say after seeing the Angkor ruins maybe even better preserved. Apparently they used local honey to cement the bricks of their temples, and the only reason some of the temples are falling about now is that they were badly damaged when Americans bombed them in the 1960-70s.

The Myson ruins were definatley a highlight and so was Hoi An, we would have loved to spend longer there if it hadn't been raining, maybe rented motorbikes and gone exploring and seen the beach. There is a reason there's so many tourists - it's beautiful scenery.

But since it was raining we moved on ...