Day 149. Hue, Vietnam. My tomb's bigger than your tomb.

Between 1802 and 1945 Hue was the capital of Vietnam, and as such was home to all the nation's main men.

They were a conceited bunch, with each successive emperor attempting to outdo his predecessor by building a slightly bigger and more grandiose temple in his own honour - temples that would eventually serve as their private mausoleums.

There are seven of these sites within a 10 mile stretch along the Perfume river, and today we took a tour to three of them; Tu Doc, Khai Dinh and Minh Mang.

First up was Tu Doc, which turned out to be a disappointment. Quite weather beaten and dilapidated, although the ornamental gardens were pleasant enough. Far more interesting is the emperor's story. Such was his paranoia that after spending a fortune constructing the gaff he decided to bamboozle potential grave robbers by being buried at a secret location elsewhere, leaving instructions that the poor buggers unlucky enough to carry out the internment were to be beheaded in the interests of security.

Brutal, but effective as it turns out, because to this day no-one has found either his body or any of the precious artifacts.

Before lunch we squeezed in 10 minutes at a place where they supposedly make those conical hats you always see paddy peasants wear in the movies. The only thing we saw being made though, was lots of money from gullible tourists. It was dull in the extreme, but redeemed by a colourful display of incense sticks, which we photographed but didn't buy.

Met a couple of seasoned travellers over lunch, Shane & Mary from British Colombia, who - like us - were frustrated at the lack of flexibility on the tour. Our guide was a decent enough bloke but we couldn't warm to his constant barrage of instructions: "You get off bus, very beautiful here", "We at temple, back on bus in 30 minutes", "Lunch now, finish in 40 minutes" and so on.

Anyway, the afternoon was better, and the last two temples truly spectacular. Khai Dinh's being especially memorable for the many portraits he'd commissioned of himself wearing full make-up and increasingly flamboyant outfits.

No fifty wives and two hundred children for this fruity fella. No sir.

Dinner in the evening with the Canadians who passed on some top tips for our forthcoming stint in Cambodia.