Bonsoir my lovelies, another day, another city in the world of Lee and Kat. I am writing this from the more sedate and very beautiful city of Hue, which we flew into this morning very, very early! It was touch and go whether I would be able to update tonight as we had a bit of a major power cut for 4hrs across Hue and our hotel was one of the many offering candles with room keys. But now power is restored, and we have just come back from an amazing meal to be greeted with freshly brewed Vietnamese tea as we write this in the hotel lobby. As well as being a beautiful country, the welcome in the hotels is beyond amazing, the people we have met so far have been so kind and helpful and always have a smile (and often 'where are you from - oh England - soccer!). I think that Vietnam is fast becoming one of my favourite places!

Anyways we arrived early, landing at about 8am into a tiny airport which seemed little more than an outhouse, we had arranged connections with the hotel and sure enough he was there and ready for us as we arrived, very, very tired after such an early start and the chaos of the airport in Hanoi. The journey to the hotel took about 45minutes and already you could feel that despite yet more cloud cover it is hotter here and the roads have so far been much more sedate with more bicycles navigating the streets than in Hanoi. Obviously, there is the ever-present motorbikes and a fair amount of beeping, but the pace immediately felt more relaxed.

Hue is famed for its citadel and the relics left by a long history of emperor dynasties, but it is recommended that aside from these sites there is little else to do, so we had planned a brief sojourn with the full day on arrival before heading to Hoi An the next day. Luckily our hotel were beyond amazing, when we arrived she ran through the options of getting to the main sights and recommended a private car for $40, we normally like to walk around and discover by ourselves, but a number of the palaces we visited are 5-10k outside the city and a car is better and to be frank we were exhausted so we gladly handed over the moulah, had a quick freshen up before heading out with our driver.

The first place we visited was the citadel which was built as a self-contained city for the emperors of their time. Now many of the buildings have fallen into disrepair (a lot were destroyed in various wars) and there is a fair amount of work going on to restore some of the buildings. But what is left is vast and beautiful, with elaborate statues, carvings and temples and stunning views across Hue. Everything was self-contained in there and this included housing for all the emperor's wives and servants (for there were many!) and it was a beautiful, peaceful place to walk round. There was the opportunity to dress up in the royal dress and sit on one of the thrones, but we by passed this as we're not really 'fancy dress' people and there was a coach load of Japanese ladies getting very excited about this and I imagine we would have had to wrestle the costumes from them!

After the citadel (we were driven there and walked around at our leisure and then met our driver when we were ready, so we didn't feel too hemmed in like some of the tours we came across who were being herded from coach to venue and even being told where pictures should be taken!) Following this we headed a short way up the hill to the Thein Mu Pagoda, the oldest in Hue and known because of its focus for Buddhist protest against repression. Within the grounds there is the powder blue Austin which was driven by Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in 1963. Once there he got out of his car and sat in the lotus position and set himself on fire, therefore burning to death to protest about the excesses of President Diem's regime. There are pictures of that very event which are incredibly powerful and moving.

The scenery from high up on the hill provided a beautiful view of the Perfume river, which runs through Hue and it was a stunning, peaceful place to be. Inside the temple, a Buddhist monk struck the gong at intervals so that the sound rang out across the temple as people prayed, coupled with the intense smell of incense offered to the gods, this was a place of such peace and contemplation - even I was quiet for a while!

The final part of our tour was spent visiting the tombs of Tu Duc and Khai Dinh. Now these tombs are not just any tombs (these are M & S tombs!), Tu Duc's was created over 5 years and included a manmade lake and islands as he liked boating and would come and boat here and write poetry before he died and checked in for eternity. There are many temples and tombs not only for him but for his favourite wife and adopted sun. Again, these were somewhat crumbly around the edges but so utterly beautiful and all set within pinesque forestry with the only sound being the orchestra of crickets in the trees.

The final tomb, Khai Dinh was much smaller but grander, so very grand, it took longer to build his mausoleum than he actually reigned for (he was in power for 9yrs but building it took 11yrs!). We've figured out that there is good reason that Vietnam is less 'developed' than the west, these pesky emperors spent all the countries dong on these most elaborate of temples and resting places. Inside the tombs and temples there are lots of amazing statues and offerings to the gods and they are beautiful, and it is easy to forget that these are pretty much graveyards but on an extreme makeover - home edition kind of scale.

After this and the early start we were on our knees exhausted so headed back to the hotel for a nap and to discover it wasn't just that I couldn't work the air con or the lights but the power had gone down for the whole block. T'was exciting to use candle light to navigate the hotel, but less so when tackling the 10 staircases taking us up to our room as the friendly lift in our hotel, so called because it's tiny so you fast become on friendly terms with those you travel with, was also powerless.

Once refreshed and somewhat awake we headed out into Hue in search of food and hoping on hope that the power would return as the camera battery was desperately low (sorry about the lack of pics peoples, these computers are unwilling to upload pictures without taking about 1hr per picture and then many continue to fail! We have over 800 pics so far so be prepared to be bored to death when we return if we can't find some super-fast t'internet to upload them!) We wandered along the charming streets, still busy but noticeably quieter than Hanoi and happened across a little restaurant where we had amazing spring rolls (these are fresh ones which means they do not deep fry them and they are delicious). Lee had a pork satay roll which was pork rolled around lemongrass sticks and barbequed which came with rice pancakes and yummy peanut sauce which he had to assemble. We had main courses of curry (lee) and I had barbeques fish (yum!) and all accompanied by the ubiquitous and wonderful tiger beer. It is also noticeably cheaper here in Hue, the whole 4 courses and beer for the two of us was six pounds - a McDonalds costs more than that at home and the food was beyond immense. We are hoping to find a cooking class in Hoi An to learn a recipe or two, so if we (by we I mean Lee) masters it, we'll be taking bookings for authentic Vietnamese cuisine a la Garforth! After dinner we walked down the Perfume River to walk off the food which was lovely. There are night cruises of the perfume river but to be honest the river is lit up mostly by neon advertising hoardings and we have been right royally ruined by the immenseness of Halong!

So now we're back at the hotel, refreshed from the lovely tea and ready for bed! Tomorrow we have booked a private car (get us!) to drive us down to Hoi An, about 100k away. On the way we are stopping at the marble mountains (and other places I forget about!) and then we are in Hoi An for 4 nights (the longest we've stayed in one place so far!). Hoi An is famed for its tailoring and silks and it the place to go to get made to measure clothes in 24hrs at reasonable prices so I may just have to dabble in such a sport! So, I shall sign off from Hue and we shall 'speak' again when in Hoi An.

Big love to all of you!

Huge hugs

Love Kat & Lee xx

P.S. Obviously I am the one writing these blogs at the mo but Lee says he is going to be a guest writer and do one soon, you'll recognise it because it will be ever so much shorter and everything will be called 'nice' rather than my rambling, overly peppered with adjectives prose and never ending sentences!