It's raining, it's pouring...!

Yeah - it's definitely raining.
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So after our hectic first week we've started to slow it down in Hue with a couple of good days of relaxation and a lots of sleep catch-up!

The town is really lovely - dominated by the prestigious citadel which was the home of the emperors throughout the rule of the Nguyen dynasty.  We had a good look around it on our first day here and were suitably impressed.

We had the good fortune to bump into a Worcester-born Canadian who has lived in, and travelled around, Vietnam for the last 17 years.  Spotting a good opportunity to gain some insider knowledge we asked him to join us at our favourite cafe for the best banana pancakes in Hue (officially!).  Having imparted some of his extensive knowledge of the area onto us he then returned the favour by taking us to his favourite restaurant for a three course meal - on his expense account!  We finished off the evening with an ice cold beer beside the perfume river.

And then the rain came...  We now know the why they call it the 'hot wet season.'  Picture this:  Eating your breakfast at 7:30am whilst the raining is sheeting down, flooding the drains and causing every cockroach in the area to make a break for freedom and head our way!!  It's enough to put you off your beans on toast!

As you can see from the pics we eventually braved the flooding for an epic trip to the bank (which turned out to be closed - damn vietnamese national holidays!) and were pleased to see so many cockroaches had not survived the journey.

So with the unexpected flooding we've spent most of today chilling out in the coolest travellers' cafe eating banana pancakes (can you spot the pattern here?) with a couple of fellow travellers from Reading.

We're off to Hoi An tomorrow and are hoping the rain won't follow us there too...