We left in Hoi An on Monday at noon and I was a bit gutted as it was a really nice town. There wasn't much to do there but if you were into shopping then you could be entertained for days or weeks. I've probably got the worlds longest shirts now too. Thinking now I should of got some tailor made shoes to go with my suit. Before leaving Hoi I posted my clothes, gifts and souvenirs as there was no chance of getting them in my rucksack. The post office came to the hotel and boxed them for me and then they drove off on their mopeds with my souvenirs etc on the back of the moped. I'm hoping that I will be reunited with it by the end of April, start of May. It does amaze me what you see being transported on mopeds out here, the other day I saw someone with a brand new fridge freezer attached upright to the back of his moped, god knows how he could balance round corners but he could. Also when i was in Nha trang I saw some builders turn up at a building site with several RSJs strapped across two push bikes. The moped is such a crucial part of everyday life in SE Asia.
The bus journey from hoi an to hue was spectacular, we passed several amazing beaches with not a person on them, which is my kind of beach. The bus journey then took us up into the mountains on a road called Hai Van, the mountains pass ran alongside the sea. The route was a little precarious and this was backed by observing several buddhist funeral graves dotted along the road side showing where people had previously died. As we travelled up through the mountains the scenery and views were spectacular probably some of the best I've seen. We were very fortunate as V allowed us to get of of the bus to take photos.
We arrived at Hue at roughly 5pm. I'm still none the wiser of how to pronounce the name of this town. The Vietnamese pronounce it "Hwuh"but I've heard other variations such as "who", "whey" and "hwee", I think I'm going to stick with "hwee" which is what the majority are calling it.
Tuesday morning i was up at 7am for a tour round Hue. I found the tour really good and I think camera enjoyed it as I must of took nearly a 100 pictures, ok I will have to delete the duplicates. The first place we stopped at was the history of farming museum, the content inside the museum showed how the vietnamese farm rice and catch fish. There was an 79 year old woman working in the museum who demonstrated each item and how they worked. Although not necessarily linked to farming she kept chewing on this beetle nut concoction that has narcotic properties, apparently over time it produces a black substance in your teeth that protects them when you haven't got toothpaste available. The old woman looked like she was having a great time and she also seemed really enthusiastic about her job, i suppose the beetle nut concoction would help. The next place we visited they had women making incense sticks and the conical hats, i've never seen so many incense sticks in one place, there was bundles of them everywhere and as expected both the hats and incense sticks were handmade. Prior to lunch we visited the tomb of Tu Duc, which for me was the highlight of the tour. Tu Doc was once an emperor within Vietnam and when he died they built him practically another palace so be could rest in peace. The tomb was within these amazing grounds and the architecture of the buildings was magnificent with each building looking very similar to a Chinese temple. I think a large majority of my photos taken today were of this place. I've also noticed the closer we get to china the more obvious the influence the Chinese has on Vietnam.
For lunch we ate at a pagoda and they served up some vegetarian dishes which were really good with my favourite being deep fried pumpkin pieces. I've never really tried pumpkin before so I was quite surprised that it tasted so nice. The only drawback with eating in the pagoda was we had to eat sitting on the floor which i struggled with and got most of my food on the floor. At the same time I was getting very twitchy as this oversized wasp kept flying around the room which was getting me nervous as I reckon it's sting could take down an elephant. The tour guide, V, told us that in Vietnam if your house has a wasp nest then it is seen as being very lucky, some Vietnamese will look for houses with existing nest before putting down an offer. I personally have the completely the opposite view and fear the thought of getting a wasp nest in my loft as there is no way I would find many people that fit through the loft hatch. After lunch we took a boat cruise down the Perfume river and visited a pagoda called Thien Mu pagoda. The pagoda looked very similar to the other pagodas I've seen but this one had a memorial in memory of the Buddhist monk that set himself alight back in the 60s to protest against the south Vietnamese cracking down on Buddhism. The memorial consisted of the car that he used to drive to Saigon before he set himself alight and a rather graphic picture of himself in flames. Following the visit to the last pagoda we caught a river boat down the perfume river back to Hue, I fell asleep as the humidity has a tendency to make me drowsy. I don't think I miss much in terms of views, but it did stop me from getting asked by a lady selling tat from her table set up at the front of the boat.
Wednesday morning we took a taxi ride to other side of Hue to see the citadel which was where the king and queen used to live when they were alive. It was amazing place although some of it had been destroyed by wars dating back to when the French attacked the Vietnamese. If you have seen the episode of Top Gear when they go to Vietnam they visit this place, it's the clip where they are looking at the bullet holes in some of the walls, although I don't think the show goes as far as showing you the buildings. Like yesterday I took another load of photos. We were roughly in the citadel for about 2 hours before we went for lunch at a cafe nearby. The food was ok, I had some spicy beef noodle soup, but the highlight was a Vietnamese guy that had a party trick of being able to open bottles with this make shift bottle opener made of wood and a nut and bolt. I've posted a video on Facebook as I don't think a photo would capture it properly. During the lunch I found out that the bottle opener guy had lost his hearing fighting for south Vietnam in the war. Before leaving the cafe he gave us each one of his special bottle openers as a souvenir, he then proceeded to show us photo albums of pictures people had taken around the world with the bottle opener. Im not sure if to keep it or not, as i wouldn't have a clue how I'm going to explain what it is if i get searched at customs.
We catch the final train tonight to Hanoi for the final part of this trip. I've been given some sleeping tablets so I can get some sleep as I've yet to have a decent nights sleep on the trains. Looking forward to getting to Hanoi as I'm going to visit Halong bay, which by going off photos it looks amazing.