Day 20 Hue.

Today we will leave our life of luxury, put all that overrated 'RnR' behind us and its back on the road with our guide as we head north, across the Hai Van pass, to Hue.

We are picked at 10.30 am, for our 4 hour drive, including a stop for lunch. Initially we are driven into Da Nang, past the old american air force base, where the bunkers are still in clear evidence, then through the centre of Da Nang, which is a thriving tourist town, with enormous hotels (a la las Vegas in size), all hosting weddings as we drove through.

We discussed the subject of weddings with our guide, who was married 3 years ago. He got married in a small wedding (only 400 guests!) although the average sized Hi wedding is 700, a large wedding being over 1000 guests. Financing such a large wedding is not the same as the UK. Here the guests give envelopes with money as gifts, which is used to pay for the reception and, if lucky or a popular couple, with enough money left over for their home (which is more than likely to be with the parents/in laws!) (Emily - you don't know how lucky you are, if you lived in Vietnam you would have to move in with us!!). A list of who paid how much is then maintained and referred to in the future when you are invited to their wedding, so you don't underpay/overpay.

A month prior to the wedding, the lucky couple go on location for a days photo shoot, to provide a keepsake of their wedding (in a months time) and to provide an enormous picture outside the wedding hotel. (Not sure what happens to the photos if they change their minds). In fact we came across one couple, at a very scenic spot at the top of the Hai Van pass. Bizarrely, they were posing on top of an old american pillbox, covered in the pockmarks of bullets, situated at a point where extreme fighting to control the pass had taken place during the Vietnam war.

So we dropped over the pass, into a picturesque fisherman's village, Lang Co, where oysters are cultured both for pearls and digestion. Here we took lunch, before embarking on a longish drive across the lowlands of the 'Ocean cloud' mountains.

I had read that Hue is famous for especially spicy food. My lunch was my first experience of this. I had ordered what I thought was a standard beef and noodle soup. After several mouthfuls my mouth began to light up, then a chilli seed lodged in the soft palate of my throat. I could not speak! I had tears running down my eyes and trouble breathing. After I recovered, I said to the waitress 'By gad sir that was hot' and she regarded me with a look of disdain that said 'You big woose'!

On we drove after lunch. Now it is during these car moments that you get to converse with the guide on more everyday matters and often quite bizarre topics. For example, we discussed travel sickness with our guide who's wife suffered badly. We spoke of the wristbands we wear that has a small plastic pimple that needs to be located over the point on your wrist that you use to measure your pulse. The principle is like accupuncture where the pressure on this point eases travel sickness - it really works for us. So here you are, a western couple teaching an eastern man about the principle of Chinese medicine. Bizarre!

We arrive at our hotel at 3pm - the only hotel that we had decided to upgrade in advance, for a view of the Perfume river (another Perfume river, hopefully a different brand to that in Hoi An). Our room, or I should say rooms, are on the top (10th) floor, with panoramic views to the river, and the mountains beyond. We have a lounge, a bedroom, a bathroom and a shower room. In the shower room is a shower pod (of which you will be familiar with - Sandee & John), where in addition to the overhead shower units, there are 12 high pressure side jets and jacuzzi jets set at bath height. There is a panel with circular, pimpled, discs that (presumably) can be used to massage your back (or any other part you wish). The control panel has the obvious buttons for temperature, force of water etc but also a telephone button to call reception for champagne, a button to control the radio and a button to control the CD, with speakers inside the pod. Best of all there are two seats inside the pod, although Julie has already said you can forget about that! Shame, I was looking forward to bath time!

Comments:

sandee The shower pod sounds like the GT version to ours!!! Use every outlet you can - happy days!!!

Apr 8, 2015

Peter B I though you had left the R & R behind? 10.00 am starts, executice shower pods, multiple rooms etc this hardly following in the footsteps of Michael Palin and sleeping on the floor with the water buffalo I think young Tonkin that the decadent life has got to you and starting to slack off from being the rough travel guide!

Apr 9, 2015