Lunch is at a small restaurant called Lac Thien, which has made it into the Lonely Planet guide. The venue is owned by a deaf mute family and is frequented by several tour groups - the walls and ceilings decorated in friendly grafitti is a dead give away.
We visit the Citadel, exploring the buildings and the ruins. There is a large block of land on which the emperor's residence and his concubines' residence used to be. It appears that historians are unsure if they were destroyed by the French during the war or by the North Army making its way to the south. The level of Chinese influence in the culture and its architecture blows me away. As did the fact that the first emperor had 300 concubines.
After a rest at the hotel, Chinh takes us to a "theatre" restaurant for dinner where we are the performers. We nominate a king and a queen. The rest of us are their servants - the concubines and eunichs. We are then robed according to our titles in ancient traditional dress. Photos are taken of the royal family and we are seated for dinner. Dinner is delicious and we are entertained by a traditional Vietnamese band.
The next morning, we have breakfast and are picked up by our biker gang. Don't picture tattoo covered, leather clad gang land members. Picture pint sized asian men with big grins, great attitudes and tiny scooters. These men might be small but they navigate their way through the traffic fearlessly. The bike ride takes us to village markets, local museums, historical monuments, rice fields and a vegetarian lunch at a nunnery. Thus far, it is the highlight of the trip - lunch included.
After a cruise down the perfume river to get back to the hotel, we rest and then walk to dinner at the Mandarin Cafe. The Cafe is owned by photographer, Mr Cu, who speaks Vietnamese, English and French. We consume more of the delicious local cuisine. During the meal, we sift through his photos and are able to purchase them. After dinner, some of us stay for dessert and stuff our faces with the french inspired crepes on offer.
Finally, it's home to the hotel for some well earned rest and preparation for our four-hour bus ride to Hoi An.
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