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NEXT STOP: Hue
We arrived around 8am, after being on a bus for 10hrs over night, we needed a sleep, but once we became human again we went to the Citadel, which has a 10km perimeter and was begun in 1804 by Emperor Gia Long. Its mainly houses and shops for the tourists now but it had some really nice streets and people, while we were walking and taking in the sights a local on his Cylco started to cycle next to us and asking questions about us and where we were from etc etc the normal things they ask, quite a sweet man, he said no pay just walk so we carried on having a good old chat and he took us through someones garden to an old US lookout with some good views of the city. He read Stu's palm and then mine, told us his father was killed by a US bomb in 1975 when he was just a small boy, which only left him and his mum, he then became a monk for 7 yrs, left to get married and have 2 children, but is still a Budhist and prays twice a day. We dont know how
but we ended up getting into the Cyclo and he took us around all the major sights and the Forbidden Purple City, which is reserved solely for the personal use of the emperor. Inside were again some good sights of the old building, walls.
We bumped into a scottish couple we met inthe last place and arranged to meet up for drinks and dinner which was nice and Lisa found some nice cheap Vodka, not so good inthe morning and she only had 2 glasses.
The next day we went on a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) Tour, some history for you.......from 1954 to 1975, the Ben Hai River served as the demarcation line between the Republic of Vietnam(South Vietnam) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam(North Vietnam), onthe other side of the river was an area 5km wide that was known as the DMZ, this area became the most militarised zones onthe world. We visited the Vinh Moc Tunnels, in 1966 the USA began a massive aerial and artillery bombbardment of North Vietnam, just north of the DMZ, the villagers began tunnelling by hand. These were used by over 300 people and 17 babies were born underground in a very
very small area. we only covered a small area underground but you just couldnt imagine what kind of life they had underground.
Hoi An
This place is really nice, Thu Bon River runs through and has some history but full of tourists. We hired bikes and cycled around the local area and the beaches which were lovely, we just sat and did nothing for about 2 days inthe sunshine, got up from the sunbed, got some lunch then back on the beds and they bring the beer to you, what more can you ask for!
Our hotel had a swimming pool, so when we got back from a hard day at the beach, we jumped into the pool to cool off.
We got some clothes made, its hard to choose as there are over 500 shops that offer this service, but we found one local to our hotel. We went in around 9am by 4pm they were ready (dress and linen shorts) both items for $25 bargain!, you could easly get carried way and get all your clothes made for you, we did meet one girl who did just that!
Nah Trang
We caught the over night bus
for 12hrs, we got held up for about an hour with an accident with a motorbike and we think a bus or lorry, nasty! But one thing is we are really shocked we havent seen more, with the way they drive. All traffic over takes on corners, mountain roads, go up the wrong side of the roads, we cycled in several places you cant take your eyes off the roads for a second.
Our hotel was quite out of the way of the main town, so we hired bikes and parked them up next to the beach and there we stayed for 2 days, but ours tans are great now, lots of white bits!!
We visited Long Son Pagoda, which has residant monks and a large white Buddha, we got stung for a donation by some local children then when we got inside a residant monk asked for more money, as he took a couple pictures of us, even though it was with our camera.
Dalat
After another 7hr bus journey we arrived in Dalat, which is in the central highlands and has a cool climate, so it was nice to get out of the heat and
sun for a couple of days. we went ona arranged City Tour, it was aimed for the tourtists, as it stops off to local shops and makes you feel like you have to buy something you would never use again. we went to a waterfall called Dantanla falls, there were 2 options to get to the bottom of the rainforest to see the waterfall, we took the best way and this was by Rainforest roller coaster, it was such good fun, and it seemed to go one for ages, we cheated and got a return ticket. we also went to the Bao Dai's Summer Palace which was very Art Deco and quite unattractive but the gardens were pretty impressive. After here we went to the Valley of Love, now i really dont know what to say about this place, apart from its "ODD", the pics will explain.
In all the above places we have had really good weather, just a small amount of rain in Hoi An.
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