Hue- the town beore being officially in the South!

So we spent the next day in Hue aboard a boat going down the Hoan something river (I forget- but it translates to the Perfume River - as seemingly do a lot of places!). Again we were with a bunch of super sour European tourists- they all look like they'd been intellectually raped by very boring Mr Sheen lool alike university lecturers. You couldn't get a smile out of these people if you threatened them with a shot gun. So I am going to assume they are all Polish- I've heard the polish are very displeased with life. The weather decided to keep the morose Polish tourists company by raiing drearily the whole day. But it was ok- I got to buy a huge purple rain coat and make Tim wear it! So that made everything fun again!

We cruised the river first stopping at this temple that was also a monastry. It was first built in the 12th Century and was incredibly beautiful. The grey rain seemed to heighten the atmosphere. The temple with three buddha statues inside was surrounded by very structured gardens with many bonzais etc. You can really see the difference between the Thai temples and the Vietnamese temples in the architecture- the Vietnamese are more influenced y China and use a lot of red and gold- the Thai are more white and gold and have different rooves. Tim and I never end up sticking with the tour group at these places a.) because the tourists are such mouldy companions and b.) bcause the tour guid is so hard to understand it doen't really enlighten us any.
In the temple complex was a school- we assume it was a it of Sunday school type thing as it was full of boys with really awesome monk haircuts (and it was Sunday). But I found it a bit weird to see all the tourists sticking their cameras inside the windows and photographng the boys- maybe its the educator inside me but I can't imagin they could concentrate very well- also they didn't ask their permission which I think is a human rights violation however small and insignificant.

After this we sailed to the Tu Doc Tomb- which is a big complex pretocted by world heritage that has the tombs of some Emporer from 1840 and his wife and adopted son. Again I have no idea why he was adopted- we didn't stick with the guide. But it was a sprawling complex with beautiful gardens and amazing old ruins. Much had been bombed by the Americans and some was under reconstruction. We were lucky to see much of it as it would have been though.

We then continued to the Ming Manh tomb- which Lonely Planet claimed was the most magnifient- well Lonely Planet I would like to refute that! Tu Doc was far more exciting.

After this we sailed back into Hue and Tim and I made our way to the DMZ (demilitarised zone)bar- which is basically a backpacker hot spot- but has a lot of personality with graffiti over the walls and cieling, great music and great cocktails and beers. We spent the evening drining the local brew (Hue beer and Huda Beer) which is by far the best beer we've had- super tasty and super potent apparently as after 3 I was pissed as a parrot. It was a really great evenign though- drinking and chatting and planning. But it made me a little homesick for the good times at the Union on King street.