Got up nice and early to go and investigate the Citadel and the forbidden city within. (It was once forbidden to anyone but the Emperor, his Harem and Eunuchs which were not considered a threat to the Harem; now it's delights are yours for 55,000 dong.
Took a painfully slow cyclo round the citadel to places of no interest whatsoever, my driver seemed literally to be taking me on a tour of some vague acquaintances until I was forced to take control and designate his destinations from my lonely planet book. There was still less to see than I had expected. Got him to drop me at the forbidden city and had a wander round.
It was Built in 1805 and has been renovated about 3 times since... in fact seems to be under constant renovation. It's an interesting mishmash of stunningly, seemingly brand new well restored areas, run down but still fantastic old builldings, ruined areas where you can only glimpse tiny remnants of former glory ... and the strangely incongrouus modern touches like a brand new tennis court right in the middle.Canals section off areas of the citadel so you are constantly going over funny/dangerous-looking bridges, or lotus laden, ballustraded manicured moats.
Wish i had had more time here as I think a cruise down the Perfume River would have really been the only thing worth doing today however we would not have arrived back in time. If i can, I will return here and do just that. We are off to get a very very long train jounrney to Hanoi this afternoon, leaving at 2pm and arriving at 5am from where we go immediately to Halong Bay to join our junk boat, enjoy the scenery, swim, eat seafood, and stay over night in Halong before 2 days exploring Hanoi before the trip ends.
At least we got to see loads of stunning views yesterday on the moto trip - that really was excellent!
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