Last day in Hue

Today is our last day in Hue, we've checked out of our hotel and booked a sleeper coach for tonight headed for Ninh Binh. It's about another 12/13 hours north of here near Hanoi (the largest city in northern Vietnam). It's a bit of a shame the weather has been so rubbish in Hue, and the fact that any tourism sights are out of town. If they were within walking distance, we would brave the weather and check them out, but the best and cheapest way to see them is a half or full day tour on the back of a motorbike. Based on the fact that the people here drive like they have a death wish and the traffic is crazy busy, neither me or Isabella really want to go on the back of a motorbike, especially not in the pouring rain. Besides, we've seen plenty of temples, bridges and what not to last us a life time, so to miss out one city's worth it's not a major problem. Although there was one place I quite wanted to see, which was a museum containing the car that belonged to the monk who set himself on fire in 1963. He did in protest against Ngô Đình Diệm was the president of South Vietnam in the 60's and persecuted Buddhists. The photo of him on fire was famously used on the cover of Rage Against The Machine's album.

We found a really nice cafe last night called Mardarin's which is owned by a Vietnamese photographer, Mr Cu. All the walls in the cafe are covered with large prints of the photos he has taken around Vietnam. He is clearly quite successful too, as he had a few thousand pounds worth of Canon 5D Mk II kicking around, and when we went there again this morning for breakfast (usual pancake for Izzy, omelette for me!) he was unpackaging his new iPad. You can see his photos on his website here.

Rainy Hue

We've really enjoyed Vietnam so far meaning Hue had a lot to live up to, and unfortunately is hasn't been that great. The trouble is the last couple of days the weather has been pretty miserable with rain all day everyday, and all the main tourist attractions (other than the Imperial City) are miles out of town. The easiest way to see these is to take a motorbike tour, but with the torrential rain we've been having we didn't really want to get on the back of a motorbike for the 6 hour tour of the sights.

Every market we've visited on our trip has been different to the last, so today we visited Hue's Dong Ba Market. It had rained all day today, which I think was part of the reason it was so damn smelly. Part of the market was an indoor meat market, we walked through but I couldn't even bring my camera to my face because it smelt so bad, I just had to make straight for the exit.

Arrived in Hue

Yesterday lunch time me and Izzy took a coach for the three and a half hour trip north to Hue. It was the first bus we have taken during day time since we began our trip and it was great to see the countryside that we normally miss in the darkness of the night.