Built To Withstand

After the contrasts of Hanoi and Ha Long bay, we made our way by overnight train to Hue and after a couple of days there, by bus to Hoi An. Considering the history of this country, the lovely old temples and buildings that are still standing in such great condition in both towns are symbolic of the people's resilience!


The citadel in Hue is particularly impressive and was a favourite of mine, not least because so much of it is yellow! We visited late in the afternoon which meant there were relatively few tourists there and we were able to enjoy the atmosphere and get lost in the various complexes. There are also many temples at Hue and those of Tu Doc and Minh Mang were our favourites.


Hoi An was a bigger town than we expected, with temples, the Japanese bridge and lovely old buildings, plus great food! (Try the white roses if you like sea food). Near to Hoi An are the My Son ruins from the 4th - 14th century where we were surprised to see the Indian influence - proves how bad our world history is that we had no idea that influence had reached so far East! The marble mountains are also close to this town and the temples and pagodas dotted around these hills are great for exploring. From the top we looked out to the South China Sea and the coastline here, between Danang and Hoi An has miles of beautiful white beaches. Not surprisingly there is also a significant amount of construction going on as big hotels and resorts are appearing fast.


Our only disappointment here was discovering that blogger was a banned site - being big internet fans (not to mention freedom of speech fans!) this didn't go down well but served to remind us how lucky we are. It also meant we had to resort to writing blog entries on paper (heaven forbid!) to be typed up later!


Mandi