The rain in Hue...

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Falls mainly all day...

The overnight sleeper train from Hanoi to Hue was filled with numerous joys, the most delightful of which was the fluoroescent lights that burned all night, just centimetres above our noses. Needless to say, we arrived in Hue fresh as last night's beer.

Little were we to know that our first afternoon's brief stroll about Hue (along the banks of the Perfume River, meandering across the bridge and finishing with a small turn about the gardens at the entrance to the Citadel) would be almost all we'd see of the ancient capital of Hue.

You see, the next day it began to rain. We secretly relished the chance to have a day in, whiling away time on the internet (in our room! Didn't even have to go out). The day after, the rain continued but we, like a bunch of other raincoat clad tourists, set about taking in the sights of the Forbidden City, inside the Citadel. Fashion went out the window (no-one looks good in a raincoat) but the drizzle suited the sights - expansive courtyards shimmering with water; fog rolling across the ruined palaces and rivulets of water pouring from the mouths of dragons gracing gutters and pipes.

As we headed out for dinner that night we were surprised to find the streets were bathed in water up to our ankles. What was that night a novelty (we were assured by locals the water would be gone by morning) was the next day a concern - up to our knees. It rained with gusto for the next four days, marooning us in our hotel room. Flood waters rising to our thighs at the highest point put an end to any notion of sight seeing.

Finally, after four days of HBO, the power was lost. No hot water, no lights, no nothing. Our bus to Hoi An, which had been cancelled for the last three days, never looked like it was going to run again. Duncan's cold had grown progressively worse (the necessity of having to wade out into thigh-deep floodwaters whenever we needed to eat or drink wasn't conducive to his healing) and we realised action needed to be taken. Five star action. We packed our gear and all but swam around the corner to the Imperial Hotel, where we waited out the remainder of the disaster in luxury.

Finally, the day before we were due to leave, the clouds cleared enough to get out. Hue drips with history and it was a relief to be able to at least see some of it. We had time enough just to see the Thien Mu Pagoda and the mausoleum of Tu Duc, a peaceful enclave of gardens, temples and burial shrines. Unfortunately time and weather didn't permit us to inspect any of Tu Duc's fellow emperor's mauseleums - we'd found a way out of Hue and we were taking it!

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Photos

Roll your own
Spectacular pork stuffed squid and roll-your-own spring rolls.

And the cylcos are still out
At its peak the waters reached the top steps of these shops.

The luxury of height...
We were able to survey the extent of the flooding from our 11th floor room at the Imperial Hotel.

Blue sky
Proof we got a least another day of seeing the sights in Hue. (Thien Mu Pagoda)