Hue/Hoi An

---

I sit here now in Hoi An with a stinking cold. I find this incredible; it's bloody scorching here in Hoi An, which is markedly more warmer than the north of Vietnam due its central location. One suspects the locals on the train on the way to Sapa passed many germs to me, which isn't hard given that you constantly hear the hocking up of spit and coughing without covering the mouth...

Anyway, rant over - since my last blog we have visited the city of Hue, which is a couple of hours north of Hoi An. Hue's got a fantastic character, largely due to the excellent food, fairly clean streets and nice buildings, all right next to the enigmatic Perfume River.

I was gutted to learn that the river, however, doesn't smell of perfume....

We made our way to the Citadel, which is the very old residence of the former Vietnamese emperors. Inside this Citadel is the Forbidden Purple City, which is where the private quarters of the emperor used to be. The architecture inside all of this is ancient but it's devastating to see some of the ruins which were caused by the US bombs in the war. Still, the place was a perfect place to stroll around in largely because it's quiet; no motorbikes are allowed in here.

Which leads me to another rant - I am really getting sick of the noise here. There's far too many motorbikes which is a result of the lack of legislation and control about their use, and the constant beeping of the horns just because the cyclists can't be bothered to watch where they are going is frustrating. It's a bit of a shame really but I guess that's Asia....

Anyway the next day was spent visiting the majestic tombs of the old Nguyen emperors. We visited the one of Mingh Manh, and it's a great country motorbike ride to get there. The place was very quiet, and very serene, but you soon begin to wonder about the architecture. It all begins to look rather samey after a while.....We then stopped off for a pagoda that was featured in Michael Palin's travels in his Full Circle adventure; more for the famous Austin Motor car than anything else. I always wanted to visit this place since watching his show when I was 15.

We ended our trip to Hue with our coach down to Hoi An, an ancient, World Heritage listed city. We arrived here last night and made our way to the nearest cafe, and I had the most beautiful authentic Vietnamese feast for less than 2.50. Remarkable.

And this morning, given that Hoi An is famed for its tailoring, I bought a suit and three shirts and about 175 pounds. These were all tailor made and the quality is fantastic, although I'm beginning to think that I should have bargained, given that suits can be sold for a tenner here (albeit the quality is shitter).

We'll give you an update as we draw out our visit to Hoi An. At first sight this place looks amazing, but we're saving ourselves for the Old Town and My Son, which look excellent in the maps....

---

Comments

[mum]

Hi kids - Glad you are safe and having fun! Mark please go and get some antibiotics for that cold - best be on the safe side - yeah? Take Care xxx xxx