Wednesday 15th July - Hue

Collected by our new guide and driver at 08:00.  Today we are going to see the Citadel and then a tomb.  I was not looking forward to this that much as there have been a lot of early starts lately.  But I was very wrong.

The Citadel is the Royal Palace of the emperors and contains the Forbidden City.

Areas with a yellow roof is for the emperor.  Green roofs are quarters for mandarins.

These guys were some sort of show put on for tourists.  They looked hugely embarassed and raced through what they had to do.

Than, our guide, kept setting up photo opportunities - he was really quite insistent.

The pillars and all wood is the real deal - made out of rosewood, not concrete.

These pots are incense burners
 

Another Than-staged photo op.

Again, you are not allowed to take photos in the most impressive rooms in the complex - which covers 57 ha (whatever an ha is).

After that it was a trip to somebody's tomb but this was not nearly so interesting and I wasn't paying attention.

We then left Hue and started our drive to our next stop of Hoi An.  Vietnamese countryside is really pretty to look at so although it was 2 hours till we stopped for lunch, passed quite quickly - probably because I slept a lot.

Woke up in time to see water buffalo cooling themselves in the paddy fields:

And (another!) wedding

Stopped for lunch at this beach where you get to choose your own dinner

We had steamed grouper (not very interesting) but the clams with chilli and lemongrass were tops.

There are fish drying for use during winter

and a Catholic cemetary.  Vietnam is 8% Catholic.

Random Vietnam fact.  You see lots of Buddhist cemeteries within paddy fields.  This practice has now fallen out of favour as the catfish get into the coffins and eat the bodies.  Buddhist are never cremated as they believe they come back in the next life.

Then a 2 hour drive through Danang (Vietnam's 4th largest city) to our penultimate destination Hoi An.

We have 3 nights here (all at leisure - hurrah) and the hotel is nice.

Walked in to the old quarter to find a restaurant

We ate at Streets - a restaurant set up by a guy from NYC to support street kids.  It was excellent.

Forgot to take a picture of the desert (coconut parfait with candied pineapple) but take it from us it was delicious.

Finally, no early start tomorrow.

PS:  for the record, I am not the only one that falls asleep in cars: