Hue- The city that stole my heart.

Man, I just got back from our trip to the Central Region.It was amazing.Hue is one of the most gorgeous cities in VN.It was once the capital of VN so the city is full of old palaces and buildings, tombs and monuments.

When we first arrived in Hue, we ate dinner at Princess Ngoc Son's home.Her husband, Pham Thuan An, is a Hue historian and told us about the history of Hue.After the lecture and tour of their house, we sat down for dinner.The food was amazing traditional Hue food.

The next day was the tour of the city.First we went to the imperial palace and Forbidden City, after that Thien Mu temple, then to visit a couple of king's tombs.One of inside one of them was covered in mosaics.The room was filled with broken pieces of pottery and china arranged in the shapes of dragons.It was full of a lot of walking, but it was worth it.The architecture was beautiful very detailed and extravagant.

For lunch went to eat Banh Khoai a Hue specialty.I am in love with Hue, good food, beautiful city, gorgeous women.

Bach Ma National Park

After spending a night and a full day in Hue, we drove to Bach Ma national park the next morning.Up in the mountains it was significantly cooler than Hue.It was an interesting experience hiking the trails in Vietnam.There is a trail even if it looks like there is not a trail.Forget about clearly paved trails like those you find a Philmont.These "trails" zig zagged all over the place.But the hike was worth it.Amazing views of the ocean and spectacular water falls.It felt nice being in nature.However, for some of the group members it was too close to nature.Our cabins were full of walking sticks, various species of flies, and a scorpion.When we found out that we would not have water for the night, we decided to pack up and spend the night in Da Nang.

The next morning it was off the city of Hoi An.We stopped at the Beach on the China Sea.The water was just at the right temperature for swimming.Clean clear ocean water there is nothing like it.Surprisingly I walked away with only minor sunburn; nothing like the sunburn I got in Hawaii.After about 2 hours at the beach, we packed up and headed to Hoi An, our next destination.

Hoi An, an old trading village, is full of old buildings, and it's the place you can get practically any article of clothing tailor made.I got a pair of shoes made for 170,000 VND which is roughly 10 USD.Just pick the style you want the colors and fabric, and in less than 24 hours you can pick it up.

Our final leg of the trip was visiting the ancient Champa ruins in My Son.Between the 4th and 13th century, the Champa people controlled this region of Vietnam and followed Hindu.Many of the buildings were damaged during the war, but quite a few remained intact and have undergone some restoration attempts.The buildings have a remarkable resemblance to Angkor Watt.Walking around the grounds was like stepping back in time.It was awesome.