Day 16 - Hue, Vietnam

Picture heavy, so it has it's own email. :)

Day 16, Hue, Vietnam (pronounced something like Whey) Unable to go back to sleep in the morning  I watched rural Vietnam pass by the train window. Pretty neat, lots of water and flooded fields. At 5am there was REALLY  loud music that woke us all up, and Doro and I couldn't stop giggling since it was the second morning in a row to be awoken really early from loud music. Marina got up to go the the bathroom and apparently figured out how to turn it off, for a few more minutes of sleep. (at least on everyone else's part). Around 7 it got noisy and everyone woke up, then we shared fruit and cookies while waiting to arrive at the station. 

8:30 arrival, van to the hotel, actually located within the citadel walls! Really, REALLY nice hotel, though we have NO Water pressure. :( Had a buffet breakfast, really tasty, with coffee, really orange juice, deep fried eggs (again) some sort of dumpling? and yogurt. All very tasty. There were also bready things and sweets and fried rice, and other things I did not try. 10am arrived and we met in the lobby for out Motorbike tour! It was optional but all of us had decided to take the "motorbikes" (100-130cc scooters, that we got to ride on the back of) rather than the included taxi's. So very, very glad we did. 

The weather was pretty perfect for it, a bit gray but not too hot or cold. I got to ride on the back of our guide's bike, and he was a total character! Easy to understand and very amusing. We first went to the entrance to imperial city (2nd wall) and looked around while he told us way more than I wanted to know about the emperor's wives and concubines. :P Then we wandered into the innter wall and saw a bunch of partially restored buildings and the foundations of others. We saw the king's private lake and the restored opera house, I got some pretty pictures. Then back to the bikes! Out to the villages we went, the drivers were going pretty slow, probably a max of 40 miles an hour, and not too much crazy driving, though we did go on really narrow local roads. and one bridge that was only about 5ft wide! We checked out a bridge from the 1700's, a museum where the lady showed us all the steps to harvest rice -> flour and all the spteps between along with a few neat things to get water to the fields and a waterproof cloak from palm leaves. Also pretty scenery, flooded rice paddies,  and someone hearding ducks. :P

Back on the bikes we went back the narrow roads to town to visit a hat maker (the conical hats) who showed us all the steps to making one (well our guide talked and she demonstrated) she was disabled with one arm ending just below the elbow, but she was born that way so it didn't seem to slow her down any. She made hats with 2 layers, and a silhouette between the layers so when you look through it in sunlight you can see the design. Very neat and I regret they are too bulky for me to have gotten one. I haven't seen any others like it since. Here's hoping I'll find another nearer the end of my trip. We went down this REALLLLY narrow and winedy alleyway (4-6ft wide with corners and turns, and opposing traffic!!) both going to and returning from her place. Unfortunately no video, stupid camera. :( Though I may have gotten some of other parts of our ride, haven't looked at them yet. 

After her we wandered off roading a bit to see a killer view of the river and some bunkers where they train the army recruits. There were some young people collecting fruit from the bushes and they had us try them, odd but not bad, tasted kind of like passionfruit but small olive sized and dark purple. No clue what they are called. Sorry.

Next up narrow windy roads to a buddhist temple where we got unexpectedly a FEAST. All vegan and I cannot really describe it adequately for you. There was a delicious cabbage soup to start, then 9 or 10 small plates of various things, noodles with vegies, fried tofu, fried rice, crispy dumplings, seitan, and other things. I took a picture. :) Very beautiful garden with bonsi in pots all over and hanging vines, the view from lunch was peaceful in the extreme. (80,000 each, $4US) (the hanging vines photo and the water lily are from the monastery)

Back on the bikes on more narrow windy roads to check out how incense sticks are made then on to a king's tomb area, though his body is apparently buried somewhere in the jungle and they don't know where. Still neat to look at, though many tourists (not nearly as many as the Ho Chi Minh Complex though) and we ran into a GAP group on the similar tour that we have seen a bunch of times recently. Same restaurants, etc. Sun came out for a bit.  

Back on the bike and down to the river where we got on a "dragon boat" flat bottomed boat with 2 dragon heads on the front, and went to see a pagoda (temple) complex, then drifted down the river for a bit. (eh, it's grey again, not too exciting) then back on the bikes for a final few minutes back to the hotel where we have to say goodbye to our guide. :( This one has been my favorite by far. 

Met at 7 to go to dinner. Took 2 taxi's to the resturant. It had a fantastic ceiling made of flat baskets, I am trying to get into the habit of looking up around here. I had the recomended caramel pork, came in a hot pot still bubbling. Very sweet. Much sweeter than previous versions. The pork was a bit tough but overall pretty good, not sure I'll order it again, also "vietnam tea" Which seemed to be lemongrass. Tasty. After dinner the staff brought a cake for Tim, it was pretty impressive with flowers made out of white chocolate and his name in whipped cream letters! After dinner we went a bit further down to a bar, but they can smoke in bars (and restaurants, UGH) here so after about half hr I couldn't stand it anymore and Julie and I caught a taxi back to the hotel.