19th December 2014 Hoi-An to Hui VIETNAM

Hoi-An to Hui- Vietnam  19th December 2014

Girls did a bit of early shopping this morning - well Mandy did and the blokes carried on high level navel gazing!!

I will be along when my man has finished the loading!!

The Former US base at Danang - now derelict of course

Little ornament for the garden?  These are all state run shops which means that the money probably goes to somewhere it shoudln't

Stunning Scenary on route from Danang to Hue

Mandy does not like edges of roads so found a use for her "coolie" hat

This morning we left Hoi An to travel to Hue (pronounced "huhey") the former capital. We drove back through Danang and stopped at the Champa museum which held many of the artifacts from the Champa kingdom from where we had visited yesterday, My Son and Duong Dong. They had the most stunning collection of carved brick portico’s, statues and gods all from the 5^th century, before Angkor or Sambor.

End of season sleep although it was only 10..00am.  They never seem to function well without rice every hour.

5th Century Artifacts in champa museum

"Now Paul...don't mention the war...."

Then on to Hue. 

The drive took us through some stunning mountainous scenery over a high pass called the Pass of the Ocean Clouds which was the original border between North and South Vietnam. This is the narrowest part of a very narrow country and the control of the highlands has always been critical to the control of the country.

Hue was built here so that the king could send troops North  South easily and was used this way right through to the Vietnam war.

There are another massive series of tunnels in this area and not far from here is the infamous My Lai massacre site although Hue saw much the same from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive.  If your are too young - Google it !!

Saying goodbye to Danamg...in some style

Modern Day Danang

They like grand statement and there is plenty of Chinese money about for all of these big projects

The road from Danang to Hue

Finally, Mingh Mangs tomb and its not a Spike Milligan character either.  This is the last king of Vietnam before it became a republic and buried in the late 19th centrury in a not insignificant grave. He battled Napolean, the British and the Siamese but was eventually "done for" by the French who colonised Vietnam.

The tomb of the last Vietnamese king.
His burial location has been kept a secret and in the 18th century, nobody knew of the existence of the site at all.

Modern day Hue - rapidly becoming a leading tourist destination in Vietnam.
Now, off we go again - 4.30 flight from Hui to Hanoi