HOI AN:

From Nha Trang we took the night train to Hoi An, a small picturesque city in the middle of the country, a bit south of Hué. Initially we had not planned on going there but so many people strongly recommended a visit so that we changed our plans.
The buildings are beautiful and you find very tasteful galleries, restaurants and also nicely restored temples and pagodas.
It is also know for the approximately 300 tailor shops. Unfortunately we had not read the Hoi An section in our guide book very thoroughly so we were pretty unprepared when the first girl on the street came up asking: “Hello, where are you from? What is your name? Do you want to come to see my shop?” We followed her, not knowing that this is the usual thing and that we would be advanced by about 50 more girls like that. We ended up having a few items tailored.
Hoi An also has one of the coolest markets, you can spend hours just roaming around.
Though it was cloudy and for the first time of our trip we were forced to wear long sleeves, Hoi An was one of our favorite spots in Vietnam.

Hoi An Old Town was declared an Unesco World Heritage Site.

Although the weather was not too friendly, ...

... the buildings, painted in bright yellow...

... and turqoise colors...

... made up for the lack of sun

A typical Hoi An house with dark heavy doors, overhanging roofs...

... and a balcony.

Paper lamps everywhere.

Very nicely lit at night.

We had a very nice dinner here. You also could talke cooking classes (which we didn't).

.

A Chinese merchant house.

Hoi An is probably an art-lovers paradise. Nathan liked watching the...

... woodworkers.

Hoi An is also full of Chinese ...

... assembly halls...

... congregations...

... and pagodas.

Japanese covered bridge.

The Hoi An Market was one of the coolest one in the country. Everything from chickens and other lifestock, to meat, fish, veggies and fruit as far as the eye can see, houseware, clothes and pottery.

Here the fish ladies.

Poor piggies. A bit gross too. We even saw them transportet on motor bikes, up to three of them strapped on the back.

This is a picture from Hanoi, but for context I am putting it here.

A few more pictures of pretty houses.

Another one to add to my collection of turquoise houses.

We thought that the tree growing on the house was pretty cool.

And another tree to hug- with a great background pic. Unfortunately it turned out a bit fuzzy.

Hoi An has a very nice long beach. Although the weather was not really sunny and warm...

... it was still fun to play a bit in the water.

HUE:

From Hoi An we took a bus to Hué. We realized that this was a mistake when our bus pulled into an ugly industrial area just 30 minutes after our departure, the driver and guide left for two hours and a couple of guys started changing one of the windows and welding underneath the bus. The situation was pretty frustrating, as we never got an explanations/apology from the driver or guide. We finally arrived in Hué hours after we were supposed to…
The city of Hué as such is not very spectacular but it is known for the Emperor’s Enclosure, a great pagoda and the many large gravesites around the city. We took another awesome guided motor bike tour. The weather (it started out cool and overcast but improved really quickly) as well as the sights was beautiful but after about 7 hours we were pretty “graved-out”!

Hué is the "emperors' city". You find many temples and tombs of the Nguyen emperors, most of them are designated Unesco World Heritage sites. Here: the Citadel.

The Emperial Enclosure, with a great palace, temples and other grand buildings (or what is left of them after the wars). Here famous "Noontime Gate".

Beautifully restored buildings with mosaics.

Thien Mu Pagoda. It was hard to get a picture with only Nathan on it, as there were tons of tourists (mainly German, French and Japanese tour groups- not that it matters).

Car, that transported the monk Thich Quang Duc to his self-immolation in Saigon in 1963. He burned himself publicly as protest against president Ngo Dinh Diem.

Here the picture.

Grave in a rice field. You see those quite frequently as owners often want to be buried on their porperty.

A very nice covered footbridge, off the beaten path.

Great picture, Nate!

And another artsy picture of a fishing net.

The first royal tomb we visited: the tomb of emperor Tu Duc. As he was living here already before his death, the site is huge (and touristy), with various temples, gardens, harem buildings...

... a boatlanding...

...and pillars...

... finally the actual tomb.

The Elephant Temple. This one is only accessible via motor bike and therefore there are no tourists at all. This is the great thing about local guides, who know (still) secret spots.

As it is not open for "mass tourism" yet, the buildings are not restored and partially overgrown by plants. Very nice and quiet atmosphere.

Pretty small those emperors!

In this arena the emperors enjoyed tiger-and-elephant fights. Only the emperor was allowed to come here.

The tiger was kept here and entered the arena through the hole on the right.

Tomb of Khai Dinh. Tons of stairs to climb to the very top.

The tomb was just completed in 1931. The inside is beautifully decorated with mosaics.