Sunday 18 October Hue to Ho Chi Minh city

Very quiet venue and thankfully no one fell off the bed frame step! It had been raining overnight, the first rain we have seen here, so quite steamy. Late breakfast as we don't leave until 11am. the resort is simply lovely. The gardens are amazing, staff very friendly and efficient and breakfast restaurant had a wide variety of food. They even had Vegemite!

The pool area is so well maintained and there is even a separate children's pool and play area.

Time to leave the resort for a 30 minute ride to the airport. It is deemed an international airport as about once a year, a helicopter from Cambodia lands here. the runway is very short so am not sure what the plane will be like. Unfortunately we have a long wait as for the whole time we were there only one other plane delayed and our plane was late arriving so lots of stop and start until we finally got on board. Being in seat 41B meant being in the middle almost in the last row! Thankfully only a 70 minute flight. Landing in Saigon we were then boarded onto coaches for our hotel, Marriott Bonvoy. Lots of traffic to contend with.

We get to our room and are really disappointed as we had been promised a river view room! Instead we got a corner room at the back of the hotel, overlooking an empty high rise! If you put your head at just the right angle by the corner window you get a glimpse of the river. The room is huge, along with the full glass window into the bathroom, but as we had a 4th floor room that looked into a concrete wall in Hanoi, we were especially looking forward to a room with a river view. When I told Nguyen about it, the hotel told him that the only other river view room available was with a double bed. Bah humbug!

Time to unpack, have a calming peppermint tea and chocolate before we head to the dining room at 7pm for dinner. We will also be meeting new people who are joining the tour so hope they are an improvement on some of the wombels we are currently having to endure! Prior to dinner we were shown another room which sadly was no better view of the river than we have and the room was smaller so we are staying out. After a terse conversation with the manager J was able to get us each a complimentary white wine for the fsiling to provide a Riverview room as detailed in our itinerary. You would have thought the manager was being asked to hand over her first born, but we got the glass of wine delivered to our non river view room just before we headed to dinner. It was a buffet and there was plenty of food but nothing outstanding. Lots of new people so tomorrow will be interesting. Some reading in bed before lights out. We have an early start in the morning.

Couple of photos from our room at night plus river view photo from the dining room.

Saturday 17 October to Hue

Top nights sleep after finally working out lights and a/c. After breakfast, and putting our dishes on the friendly robot, it is time to check out as we now head to Hue which was previously the Imperial capital of Vietnam.

Driving out of Da Nang I hadn't realised how big the place was. Drove past a whole lot of places that did huge marble statues. No idea who would buy them.

Our first stop along the way was China Beach and I had fond memories of watching the tv series of the same name starring Dana Delaney. There were even people surfing further up the beach. Beautiful pristine beach.

We then stop to see the Dragon bridge which was really impressive.

Back on the road again and our next stop is at a lagoon where I sample salt coffee. Very nice. From what I can work out, it is good coffee, salted caramel with cream on top and a small spoonful of brown sugar on top of the cream. Also as an aside, Vietnam is the second highest producer of coffee behind Brazil.

No rest for the wicked and we are back on the coach again as we then head for a buffet lunch.

Yet again, back on the coach again as we get into Hue along the Perfumed River which was just brown water for a far as I could see. We settle into our hotel for the night which is really lovely villas but yet again we have a raised bed (sans surround lights) and big glass window from the bedroom area into the whole of the bathroom. Thank goodness for a pull down blind but why bother with clear glass in the first place?

Time to head out for a tour of the Imperial Citadel. Imperial City or Imperial Palace is a royal enclosure within the walled city of Huế, the former imperial capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty. About 70% of the population are Nguyens so it's a common as Smith! It contains the palaces that housed the imperial family, as well as shrines, gardens, and offices for mandarins. Constructed in 1804 under Emperor Gia Long as a new capital and later re-modelled and enlarged to its current scale in 1833, it mostly served as a ceremonial function and imperial residence during the French colonial period. The Emporer would come to the front of the main pavilion to greet foreign dignitaries and this is where in 1945 the last 13th emporer had to abdicate in favour of pressure put on him to recognise Ho Chi Minh, or as the locals called him "Uncle Ho'.

The Emporers enjoyed polygamy and one had 500 wives but was made to get the number neck to about 100! There were separate buildings for wives and concubines, children and even the queen dowager. All were separated by high walls and separate entrances and exits. Where the Royal family lived was deemed the Forbidden City.

After the end of the monarchy in 1945, it suffered heavy damage and neglect during the Indochina Wars through the 1980s. The Imperial City was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993 as part of the Complex of Huế Monuments and is undergoing restoration. It became very humid while wandering around so was good to get back on the coach to head back to the hotel. We went for a walk around the complex to work out where everything was. The pool looked great but we were reluctant to go on as we workshop get our bathers dry by morning to pack in the suitcases. So instead we find the bar by the pool and as it was happy hour(2 for 1) indulged in a refreshing bevy.

Back to the room for aquick shower to freshen up and then to dinner which was lovely and way too much food.

During dinner I heard a noise I wasnt familiar with and realised that it was raining. Quite heavy but great to reduce the humidity. When we left the restaurant we were given umbrellas to get back to our rooms. It was really nice walking in the rain. Cuppa time back in the room, catch up on the blog and then lights out. Let's hope there is no falling off the edge of the bed frame tonight...