Hue

Quite a lot quieter than Hanoi, Hue sits prettily on the Perfume river and is the former royal capital where the last Emperors of Vietnam ruled before Ho Chi Minh. We visited the Citadel where the royals lived with their entourage of mandarins, concubines etc. There was a lot of interesting information about how they lived. The Emperors had about 100 wives and were presented with 50 or so dishes at mealtimes of which they chose what they fancied, of course with an underling always having the first taste just in case it was poisoned!

Also had a taxi tour of the royal tombs, two of them set in lovely grounds with lakes. The traditional decoration here is ceramic and glass mosaic and there were some impressive ones today, particularly in the third tomb, some parts almost 3D.