Day 39

Today we went on the dragon boat tour, first we met our tour guide Chinh. Then we boarded the boat, there were only 8 of us on the tour which was good as it meant it wasn't overcrowded. We travelled along the Perfume River to our first stop the Phu Mong Garden House, which was an old vietnamese style house, the women sat on one side of the room with smaller tables and chairs and the men on the other with slightly larger tables and chairs and behind each dining area was a large wooden bed which the women used to sit on and chat :) and the men were not allowed there :)

Second stop was Thien Mu Pagoda, our guide was absolutely fantastic and gave us lots of information. this Pagoda was shaped like a dragon which is one of the sacred creatures of Buddhism along with the Pheonix, turtle and carp fish. the two columns at the front were the dragons whiskers and the tall tower is its head (we thought this was actually the Pagoda, but the Pagoda is the whole area not just the tower) then the smaller towers at the side of the head were its shoulders, and the length of the Pagoda was its body with a smaller tower at the end being its tail. The Pagoda is where everyone can pray whereas a temple is where just the monks say. As per our tour guide Chinh.

Third stop was the Hon Chen Temple, we only went on the ground floor and it was rather small and not well maintained but there were still areas for prayer and lots of lovely smelling incense burning at each point.

When we arrived back at the boat it was lunch time and we all sat down on rugs and ate some rice, tofu and vegetables it was very tasty I had many bowls full Luke was very surprised, plus we had to use chop sticks as there was no other alternative and it was my first time using them and I could do it YEY even picking up the rice :) Amazing. Luke gave me a quick tutorial as he has used them before in China but finally I found a comfortable was of doing it :)

After lunch we travelled further along the river to see the Tombs. Just whilst we are on the river topic, it is called the Perfume river because some of the grass which grows along the river smells beautiful, and they use it in their cooking also. The first tomb was the Minh Mang Tomb which was the biggest burial area, there were many buildings which were shaped the Emperor himself, similar to the Pagoda shaped like the dragon, the burial area at the bottom of the area was the Emperors head. This was locked up behind gates, and the Emperor had been brought to his place of rest through tunnels undergroud which had been shut off once he was buried, noone knows exactly where he is buried, but he did this so that once he was buried noone could come and dig up his body as the story is that some Emperors which reined after him would dig him up and cut his body up so they looked like the stronger Emperor, I don't quite understand the logic.

When we got out of this tomb we sat with Chinh for a while and had a chat and he shared some Pomelo with us a local fruit which seems like a pomergranate but doesn't have circle seeds they are long and squidgy, it was very sour at times, Chinh said it would be difficult for him to visit England with all the Visa requirements, and that he hadn't even visited all of Vietnam, because Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were too expensive unless you had relatives there, and I felt extremely sorry for him especially when we had already told him about our world tour.

Then we had to travel on land on the bus to the other two tomb, the first tomb was the Kaih Dinh Tomb, this one was only created 90years ago yet was in major disrepair according to Luke this was because it was made of concrete and so eroded and turned black in colour. We had to walk up 127 steps to get to the tomp which was in the large building at the top which was decorated beautifully inside with glass and ceramic tiles, and the ceilings had been paited with intrinsic designs.

Back down the 127 steps and then we went to see how incense and conical hats are made both of which I want but today we just got some of the incense sticks and Luke advised me to get a conical hat just before we leave for Bangkok just so that it does not get damanged.

Then to the final tomb which was the Tu Duc Tomb, this was around a very large lake, and first were the living chambers of the Emperor, this tomb was the oldest out of the three we had seen, and this Emperor had 104 wives but no children so he adopted three of his older brothers children. Chinh said that Tu Duc was made for love making which is the reason why he had so many wives. Plus the way he would decide which wife he would chose that night is by making them cook some rice and leaving it outside their doors, and a deer would go and chose which rice he liked best, and this would be the wife that the Emperor chose. Some of the wives tried to poison each others rice so that the deer would die if it ate it and he would not chose that wife. This Emperor had his own spa which led into the lake and he was buried at the end of the complex.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and before we even had chance to say goodbye Chinh had left the bus to take some people to the boat, and I wanted to give him a tip, I really thought he was so lovely :(

Speak soon x