Following the busy morning from last weeks post, we had lunch in a garden restaurant. After an extremely refreshing lemonade, a quick video chat with my mother and the scoffing of at least 6 spring rolls, we were on our way!

Hue was the first place in Vietnam where I watched a martial arts performance. We stopped in a local martial arts school where the students (ages ranging between 12 and 20) showed us some of their training as well as putting on a little performance. The stunts performed were captivating and at times seemed really dangerous- I had to watch from behind my fingers! The students are well trained though and all worked out well.

Following the martial arts performance, we headed to the Imperial half of Hue where we went to explore the forbidden city which was home to the royal residences in the city. The area is vast and includes a lot of artefacts and detail. Definitely well worth a visit if you are in the area!

We ended the day with a boat cruise along the perfume river, named for the flowers that grow along the sides of the river. This is considered one of the ‘must do’s’ in Hue and I would definitely recommend for the cooling breeze at the end of a hot day!

I think we pushed ourselves a bit too much on this day and had to take a couple of days afterwards relax and rest a bit. It was such an interesting day and I don’t regret doing it but you definitely need to be feeling 100% if you plan to do all of this in one day because it’s a long day to do it all in one hit.