Hotel Ngọc Bình, Huế

Spent the last two days in Huế, visiting the Imperial Enclosure (containing the Forbidden Purple City) and the tomb of Tự Đức. Hue is much quieter than Hanoi although also here the driving culture includes constant purposeless honking. Food and beer is more than two times cheaper but restaurants unfortunately close already at 10pm.

Yesterday it was raining all day cooling down the air (which is otherwise around 40 degrees). We rented bikes for 1 USD each per day (motorbikes are also cheap at 3 USD per day) and drove out of the city to the south to visit the royal tombs. In the end we only managed to visit the Tu Duc tomb; the tomb of Dong Khanh was under restoration and closed to the visitors, the tomb of Thieu Tri was only partly accessible (it has not been restored at all), and the other tombs remained too far away (we started our bike trip only in the afternoon). The tombs are close to the Perfume River, the river bank offering a nice view to the area.

Today will take a 3.5h bus to Hoi An. Looking forward to this nice town which has banned all motorbikes from its center.