Century Riverside Hue

... in got a take away and borrowed a film from reception.. just like a saturday night at home!

The next day we took a walk to the Citidel (using our favourite newly learned Vietnamese term 'khong cam on' - 'no thank you' to bypass the hawkers). We walked around the emperors forbidden city damaged and covered in bullet holes from the war. The US seemed to have targeted every special historical site in the country!
Hue, Vietnam theharrisons

... and stop barking at strangers. When the tail-less dog gets too old to protect, they sell them to the butcher. Nasty people. My Godzilla has no tail to speak of, will have to remember to ask Grandma to knit her a mini blanket when she gets old so she can keep her nose warm.

One really fun thing about VN is the music. They may have moved on in terms of the war but they're stuck in time when it comes to western music, i just LOVE it! 60s and 70s ...

... la tete d'un conducteur de velo. C'est ca, je sens ses goutelettes de transpiration de l'effort de pedaler. Ca explique ma vision trouble."
Si je fixe bien, j'apercois plein de couleurs qui brillent, des lampions multicolores, des tissus, je suis peut-etre a Hoi An, la ville des tailleurs de soie?

Ce coquin de Typhon me reserve decidement toujours de nouvelles surprises avec ses tourbillons. Ou me fera-t-il donc tourbillonner la prochaine fois?

... it still shows how far he’s come since having to flee the country at the age of 10.

The walk up was nice, Lenh was a little more out of shape than Jon or I, but I still welcomed the breaks we took about every 10 minutes or so. The grade was steep and the air was humid, but the views were mind blowing, and they only got better as we got higher up. We saw big beautiful butterflies, a couple centipedes that were about 8 or 9 inches long, a glimpse of two monkeys darting ...

... Emperors tomb, which was really impressive a massive site dedicated to his body, his wife and sons bodies and the 104 mistresses he had! We also saw a Japanese bridge that had stood the tests of time for hundreds of years despite being flooded every year and stopped back via another pagoda from which the famous monk who in protest burned himself alive in Saigon, the British Austin car that he drove there is also displayed there.
In the evening we prepared ...

... suck!) As the bus jostled to and fro, I found myself tightening my abs just to center myself to keep from falling off.

An hour into the ride, I sense a bit of giggling through my I-Pod plugged ears. I redirect my gaze from the window to look inward and see three men, all in top bunks, like me, giggling like little girls. One gestures for me to take out my earphones. He says I "look sad." I tell him that I am fine ...

... to our area having wasted a journey. Unbelievably we repeated the process for breakfast, and having wandered uselessly for an hour returned back for a by then brunch. Oh well, we continued in a brave spirit to try and enjoy Hue, but to be honest, and not too rude, it was a bit ****. None too pretty streets (especially after Hoi-An) and not too much to see apart from the inner city, which we saved for last after a ...

... later show us round her home town, Hanoi. I was now positioned on this sleeper bus so that if we stopped abruptly, I would be projectiled down from the top bunk, down the aisle onto my back! Needless to say, not much sleep on this one either, even with the aid of pills!
We took a train from Danang to Hue, because we had heard that the scenery was amazing. From what I saw it was... but due to lack of sleep I slept most of it! Gutted ...

... I know why he no longer swims in the river as he did when he was a child. This experience was cause for yet another guilty reminder of just how fortunate we all are living in Australia.

Once back at the hotel we headed straight to the pool to cool off whilst the sun was starting to set. We dined at the hotel restaurant, Le Parfum, which was magnificent before the boys headed off for the obligatory game of pool. I am pleased to advise the Tom now can beat Mark!

... english, but does that mean that they should ignore me and walk away as though I were invisible while I try to mime or mispronounce my way through questions about how we can get food? It was bizarre. And it says something when you finally find the restaurant car and it is filled with noisy train staff drinking beer... at 11am.

I recently read the book "Over the Moat" by James Sullivan, which was mostly set in Hue - a true story of the ...