Today was the first day of my four day package tour with Intrepid for Hue and Hoi An. This was a join the group tour, so new single person surcharge. I had very pleasant company for today's portion only, a young woman named Madeleine who is an American of Filipino descent and is attending medical school in the Philippines. The guide has a good sense of humor and much knowledge to share and it was fun to share the experience with something of a kindred spirit. The better part of the morning was spent at the Hue Citadel, the home of the Vietnamese Nguyen dynasty emperors from 1802-1945. The last emperor, Bao Dai, considered to be a puppet emperor of the French, abdicated when Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence. Some of the previous emperors assumed the throne as children, so their was a strong role and presence of the queen mother in affecting affairs of the state until the emperor came of age, but no women ever actually ruled Vietnam. The first private hospital in Vietnam was built at the Citadel for the queen mother in the early 1900s. Walls surrounding the Citadel are speckled with bullet holes

I had a pleasant hello from some French people I had met in Sapa and ate breakfast with (blog yet to be posted) who were also there.

From the Citadel we took a brief stroll through the central market. Doing this with the guide was helpful. He identified alien fruits and unrecognizable foods, and we stopped to taste some things being sold such as lotus root and little rice or tapioca cakes wrapped in leaves and used at weddings.

Then off to a cruise on the Perfume River. This would sound like it might be romantic or at least calming. No problem with the river although it is high now as the rainy season is coming to an end, but nowhere near where it has been in the past with floods reaching the second story of homes nearby. The boat was an old decorated tourist boat with an incredibly noisy engine and reeking of diesel fuel, so the trip was sort of a brain rattler. We visited Thien Mu pagoda (of the celestial lady), but did not go to the royal mauseoleums reputed to be better. The monks at this pagoda were known for many years to be opposed to colonialism. For those of us who remember the 1960's - at this pagoda is a blue Brisitsh Austin car used by the monk Thich Quang Duc when he drove to Saigonnd burned himself to death publicly to protest the south Vietnamese president Diem's regime. The guide who was born in 1956 remembers seeing a Buddhist nun very close to where he was standing burn herself to death, remaining stoic and silent through the whole horrible process.

Later in the afternoon after lunch and visiting a place that makes incense sticks and an arena (the only of its type in SE Asia) where there were tiger and elephant fights, we visited the Mauseolum of Khai Dinh who reigned from 1920-1931 and was a puppet of the French. This is built in the neo-classical style with elements of French, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham (the Muslim ethnic minority of Vietnam) and is lavish and ornate, decorated to the hilt, much with glass and porcelain mosaics.

Lunch per itinerary was supposed to be at a nunnery, but that never happened. We had a vegetarian lunch at a quiet open air restaurant. The restaurant was decorated with some very contemporary artwork. We met the resident artist and visited his studio and watched him work. His work seemed to be of high quality and although intriguing to purchase directly from the artist, I really didn't want anything badly enough to buy it. After lunch we visited a woman who makes incense sticks at a roadside souvenir/handicraft place and had a try ourselves to do this (not so easy); then we went onto an arena (the only of its type in SE Asia) where there were tiger and elephant fights,

Dinner tonight was quite nice and just around the corner at La Carambole. I was seated at a table next to a young man and woman who turned out to be Germans from Stuttgart who had just finished medical school and their internship and were taking this time off before returning to what is comparable to a residency. We had a nice time talking together during dinner, sharing medical and travel stories. Then back to the hotel.