Day 9 - Hue

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We were up at 7:00am to get ready and have breakfast and be in the lobby by 8:30am for our tour of Hue. Jess stayed at the hotel as she wasn't feeling well and this tour was going to be a really long and draining day.

We met our tour guide Mr Tuu and jumped in our minibus and we were on our way. We drove over the Perfume River under the wall and to Hue Imperial City. The brick wall surrounding Imperial City is 10,000m long. Construction of the city was started in 1804 and completed in 1833. It was world heritage listed in 1993. We walked through quite a few different areas, seeing bits that had been restored and others that are yet to be restored after they were bombed in the war.

After, we drove to a place where they make insense and the poem hat. I got a chance to roll an insense stick, it's all done by hand.

After, we headed to Tou Duc Tomb. Tu Doc was Vietnam's last emperor 1847-1883. Some would perhaps regard him as the emporor who lost Vietnam to French Domination. He served as the fourth of the thirteen Nguyen Dynasty emperors and is certainly one of the most interesting. Tu Duc had 104 wives but not children as he had mumps when he was a child so became sterile. He adopted 2 children throughout his life so he had someone to take over king when he passed but his adopted children didn't last long at the top as people thought they weren't blood so they weren't strong enough to be in that position.

After the tomb we headed to a nunnery which is at the Thuyen lam pagoda. Here we paid 80,000VND for a vegeterian meal. It was surprisingly nice. They had like a fake ham and some corn patties and some fake chicken and corn soup and a few other things. The money for lunch goes towards education for kids from villages that can't afford it. After that, we jumped back on the bus briefly before getting of that an onto a boat to go down the perfume river to the Thien Mu Pagoda.

The Thien Mu Pagoda has been here since 1601 and is places between the river and a pine forest. Its pagoda has seven storeys and is the tallest in Vietnam.

After, we jumped back on the boat and back up the perfume river to where our bus was waiting for us to take us back to the hotel. They were nice enough to stop briefly on the way back so we could run in and get our clean laundry and jump back on the bus.

Then it was time to chill by the pool for a bit. Then I went for a quick nap, called home and just relaxed.

Carly came back so we walked and looked in some shops before we came across Jess and Gaye at DMZ where we sat and had a drink. I had one called Chi Chi and it was Vodka, pineapple juice, coconut cream and more vodka and it was only 58,000VND, so less than $3.

Then wandered across the road to Evan Spa for a pedicure for $4. Then down the road for dinner to Shiva Shakti.

Shiva Shakiti is an Indian Restaurant that we went in search of because Bruce mentioned it earlier in the day. The other girls weren't really feeling Indian so it was just myself and Carly that had it. We got two lots of papadums, garlic and cheese naan bread, vegetable samosas and one lot of butter chicken and a drink each and all it cost was 230,000VND or about $6 each! Cheapest Indian food I've ever bought. And such good quality too!

We then walked back to DMZ where 4 of the girls were to grab another drink, then Jean and John came along too. After a drink though we headed back to the hotel for a shower and to pack up our stuff for our early flight tomorrow to Hanoi.

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