UNTETHERED

Cheers!

Cocktail culture has not let up. Another crazy one called Grandma's Gift. Not sure what the little red pebbles were about. They weren't even that tasty.

Part of Vietnam's famous Reunification Express line, which runs all the way from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to Hanoi in the north, the Da Nang to Hué stretch is widely considered one of the most scenic train rides in the entire country. It had some good parts, but most of it was slow and long.

The journey is supposed to take about two and a half hours, passing through nine tunnels and hugging the coastline over the legendary Hai Van Pass which translates to "Ocean Cloud Pass"

They had entertainment in the car behind us.

While some of the scenery is really spectacular, much of it was in the dark and the trip takes a really long time. I think ours took 3+ hours.

Hué

Hue is considered the Imperial City. It is set along the Perfume River in central Vietnam, Hué was home to Vietnam's last dynasty of emperors.

First we went to the Imperial Citadel which is a city within a city; massive walls, a moat, palaces, temples

It was built in 1803 by Emperor Gia Long after he unified Vietnam and moved the capital to Hue the whole complex is enormous, with each of the four walls stretching about two kilometres long.

Inside sits the Forbidden Purple City; where only the royal family and select staff were allowed.

War wasn't kind to the place. Of the 160 significant buildings within the site, only 10 major ones survived the battles of 1968.

Just as we were going to leave, we took a little rest next to these stairs, and this music group set up and started playing.

The big 3 Mausoleums and a Pagoda

Khai Dinh Mausoleum Khai Dinh was the most eccentric of the Nguyen emperors, he embraced French colonialism and spent enormous sums on his tomb.

The outside is dark, almost gothic concrete, and then you walk inside and it's floor-to-ceiling glittering mosaic art. To get to the top, you climb 127 stairs guarded by four dragons.

Minh Mang Mausoleum is the most stately of all the tombs. Perfectly symmetrical gardens and grand gates.

Minh Mang valued Confucian order and traditional Vietnamese-Chinese principles, and the geometric precision of his tomb reflects exactly that.

Tu Duc Mausoleum Emperor Tu Duc had a thing for poetry and romance. It's the most sprawling and picturesque of the three: lakes, lotus ponds, pine trees, and pavilions where the emperor used to sit and write poems.

He basically built himself a vacation palace and then just happened to be buried there too. Oh, and he had 104 wives but zero kids. Hmm...

Thien Mu Pagoda is also on the Perfume River, it is one of Huế's most iconic landmarks. The seven story Phuoc Duyen Tower has become the unofficial symbol of the city.

It's also got a dramatic history. The pagoda was a major organizing point for Buddhist protests against the South Vietnamese government in 1963, and it still houses the car that drove the monk Thich Quang Duc to his famous self-immolation in Saigon.

We finished our time in Hue with a boat cruise on the Perfume River. If you know Kerry, she has never seen a boat on a river that she didn't want to cruise on.