I had a leisurely morning and met up with the group at 10:30am in the hotel lobby. Most said the overnight train was okay but sleep was limited. They weren’t able to check in to their rooms until the afternoon so we set off in a bus for a day of sightseeing.

A local guide, Nu, took us to the Imperial Citadel and the royal Forbidden City within. It was difficult to get a handle on what Nu was telling us versus what we were seeing as we had no overview of the layout. Basically a king built the complex in 1833 then 95% of the 147 buildings were destroyed between the War with France (1946-1954) and the Vietnam war. The buildings are slowly being reconstructed.

Next we drove a short distance to see the Thien Mu Pagoda, one of the tallest and perhaps most elegant pagodas in Vietnam, at 7 storeys high, and 400 years old. There was a temple behind with a fat Buddha in a glass box but photographing it was difficult.

Our Optional Activity for the day started from here: motor scooters! 10 of us chose to participate and hopped on the back for the fast ride through back streets and countryside on the way to visit a Royal Tomb. Completely covered in scaffolding and being rebuilt it was a bit of a letdown; we then checked out the temple next door.

We had a short stop to check out some leftover war bunkers, then an incense making village, before driving 30 minutes in the now rain out through flooded rice paddies to a old village to learn all about rice.