South Vietnam

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My last entry was from Sapa in the far north of Vietnam, after there I went south via Hanoi again to Hue on the North Central Coast.

In Hue there are some really impressive ancient tombs of former kings that mostly manged somehow to avoid being bombed during the war.
After arriving at about 7am on an overnight bus I met a motorbike guide, Hui. He persuaded me to go to the guest house he was recommending and then also for him to come and collect me again at 9 and go with him for a tour around the tombs. The tombs were really nice to see, still in pretty good condiditon. They were pretty grand as the Kings had them built and then lived in them before they died.
Hue is just south of the DMZ, Demiliterized Zone, this was the main area over which the Vietnam war (American War to the Vietnamese) was fought at the north/south divide. You can take trips to visit the area, but it goes on for miles and I don't think there is all that much to see other than some tunnels which I have already decided to visit in the South near Saigon. Even on my trip with Hui though we saw quite a lot of evidence of the war. He took me to some American bunkers and lookout posts and we passed a few areas he said were bomb craters.

Hui also talked me into agreeing to ride with him from Hue to Hoi An, another city about 150km further south. I persuaded a guy I'd met in Sapa, Marc, and a girl he'd met Maya to come too so the following day we had a little road trip.

The trip took us over the Han Van Pass, v nice views and an old American and before that French lookout point, and through lots of nice countryside. We stopped at a Vietnamese holiday spot too, called Elephant pools. It happended to be a bank holiday and so was v crowed and we did get stared at a tiny bit for being the only foreigners but I'm used to that and it was cool to see.
My bum was pretty sore by the end of the day.. but it was much more enjoyable than the 4 hour bus journey we would of otherwise! Traveling how the locals do is always more interesting anyway.

Hoi An is really lovely and I didn't spend enough time there really. The old town in a UNESCO world heritage site and so all the buildings are traditional and wooden fronted.
It is imfamous for it's tailor shops and so I obviously wanted to try them out...

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