Central Vietnam - Hoi An & Hue

Hoi An was a real highlight on my trip! It is a lovley small town, with old beautiful buildings, the countryside with rice paddies and nice beaches...and last but not least a great boulangerie (Cargo Club), where I enjoyed some espressos and really, really good cakes. ;-) Lucky as I was, I've been there right at full moon, where a festival takes place every month. It was a beautiful scenery, most of the electricity was turned off around the river and everything was just illuminated by candles and laterns. It is really worth spending some time in this town linger around through the streets! My Son is not that far from here, a temple site of the Cham Dynasty, like Hoi An also a World Heritage site. Well, if you've seen Angkor every other temple is 'ok', but nonetheless it's worth a trip. :-)

Danang, the main port of the region, is not far and easily reachable by motorbike. The town itself is not that worth visiting, but there's a nice museum with the world's largest collection of Cham artefacts. And cruising the hills around the city is very enjoyable, granting some breathtaking views of the town and beach area till you reach Linh Ung, a collosal new Buddha statue that looks south to Danang.

Hue, also a World Heritage site, was once the capital of a Vietnamese empire, with a large Citadel, the former palace of the emperors. There is not much left of the main buildings, they were destroyed during the American war. But there are still some buildings left and you can get a glimpse of how it must have looked like. As everywhere in Vietnam, also in the area around Hue you find remnants of the last war, e.g. some tunnels where the locals hid to escape the bombings. But if you don't see them you won't miss anything... :-)

Again, here you find some pictures... Enjoy!
:-)
Best wishes,
Rainer