VIETNAM: Hue (July 26th - 27th)

We continued traveling up the Vietnam coast line, this time by bus, as we left Hoi An and made our way to Hue for a one night stop.  This portion of the journey also marked our passage from south Vietnam into the northern part of the country which is more mountainous and even more beautiful.  The drive provided some great scenery of the coastline as we ascended the hills.  Hue is said to have more of a culural, artistic feel to it, which it certainly did.  It reminded us a little more of Cambodia with its ancient temples and ruins and less city builidings.

After checking into our hotel we met back in the lobby to take a motorbike tour of the city.  This was a lot of fun and a great way to see some of the beautiful sites.  We had lunch at a nunary, drove through the country side to an agricultural museum, stopped at a lady's house who has one arm and make hats (apparently she's famous in Vietnam), visited a tomb of an ancient king, went to a lookout point above the Perfume River, toured their most sacred Pagoda (like a temple), and saw their Citadel which is a massive castle like fortress that served as the headquarters for the northern Vietnamese arm during several wars.  It was a lot packed into one day.