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Published: October 16th 2007
Grave Khah Dinh, Hue
((c) http://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Grave_khai_dinh.jpg)
A true highlight of Hue is the surrounding countryside. Traveling by boat along the Perfume River visit Tien Mu Pagoda and continue on to the tomb of one of the Nguyen Emperors. Tuesday 16th OK, so we were woken by the strident knock and call of coffee about 6.50am. I might have slept through it, but Cassandra needs her caffeine injection and ends up in a debate over price, but ends up paying the listed price! Snooze again for an hour or so then there's just too many people moving around so clean teeth, risk the toilet again (it's smelling a lot worse now!), then come back, make sure everything's away, eat my raisin danish and apple pie (too much food, who said travelling makes you thin - but I did say that I'd rather not have a stomach upset if that was the price!), then start to read
A History of Tractors in Ukranian.
By 10am, we're ready to get off, but about 45 minutes later the guard tells us to make our way into the corridor. We look out of the window for our first view of Hue and it's wet! The river's really high, nearly to the railway tracks - this does not look normal!
We make our way off the train, across the tracks, avoid all the people trying to get us into their taxis and get into another minivan. Not too far away is our hotel, but there's a lot of water in the road! We make our way in, find out we're on the 4th floor... I get the lift - Cassandra's already made it up the stairs. A really nice room this time and I have the double bed. We have a shower (much needed after the train), and I get back downstairs in time for 12 noon meet for lunch. We walk (past some more puddles) round to the restaurant get a big table upstairs, look at Mr Cu's photos, and order some food - bargainous here - have baked potato/bolognaise and parmesan, followed by banana pancake, accompanied by a large bottle of water. Manage to
use their computer to resize my photos so hope to get those done whilst in Hue. We head back out, the water has risen again! Get back to the hotel with time to rinse out some washing (it's never-ending), and back downstairs for our cyclo tour to the citadel. Crazy through the rain...it's obviously causing some problems! We get there, meet our guide Anh, who shows us around, and then we get back into the cyclos. Back into the hotel briefly - thinking about posting my souvenier stuff home from here as there's a post office over the road (rather than waiting til Bangkok), but just head out to the internet cafe where I spend 2 hours uploading photos! Back to the hotel for 7pm to meet some of the group for dinner (it's a free night so nothing official), we head up the street, wading through water but it's a dead end. Back on ourselves, run into Lynne, Ricky and Vittorio who has seen a restaurant called The Temple round the corner, so we wade our way round there. It's one of the more expensive restaurants, but the water looks worse further on, so we go in. I order
a glass of red wine (this water is tiring!), and the Hue menu - which is actually pretty tasty. We head back out - the water has risen another foot or so, so we're glad we're on the 4th floor! Along with the locals who are out with their cameras, we take some photos, stock up on water/biscuits, and I head back onto the internet to get up to date, and now I'm going to severely wash my feet - I have no idea what I've been wading in, but it's not nice! Sleep!!!!
Wednesday 17th A good night's sleep... wake up 8am, go up to the 7th floor for breakfast - an odd mixture of food. The usual rice porridge (not tried it yet, guess I should!), some fatty looking meat, cold crepes, option for an omelette, some fruit, etc... Even some fresh milk which is rare, so Cassandra and Ricky dive in with their cereal! 9am we're ready to meet Anh for the days tour. The river is still too swollen for the planned cruise down the Perfume River (so named after the flowers which (used to?) line its banks... but now it's just muddy with monsoon
rain! Instead, we get on the bus, and are taken to the tombs - we whizz past the tomb of the 1st King, and head for the tomb of the second king - seeing more flooded areas as we go!
We stop at the tomb of the Second King and walk through the main gate. We have some fun taking some silly photos with the statues - worried this is some form of sacrilage but the Anh doesn't look shocked. She tells us that the front gate was closed behind the King and has never been (and should never be) opened since. The first building is his biography, the second a preparation chamber, the third where spirits can be worshipped - and I got a bit lost after that, and just took some more photos! We were getting a bit Chinese-style templed out by this point as it was fairly typical, by the third is a load of red Chinese-style stuff in which you can't take photos...
On the way out of the gate we spot some water-buffalo and yell at the driver to stop for our photo opportunity, which he does - and I get a couple
of good shots out of the window. We continue, and we see in the distance the female buddha on the hill (never heard of that before), and then as we head back past the tomb of the First King ask to stop to take some outside photos. We then stop again at the Heavenly Temple where there were sacrificial ceremonies and the King practiced abstinance before going to a big round area where there used to a stone shaped like a microphone (really, in the 1800s?) so that he could speak to the King!
We were ready for lunch by this time, so having tipped our guide (we see the driver again tomorrow for our drive to Hoi An), we head back for lunch and go to the Little Fish restaurant where there's mostly western food (some of us think this could be a good option for breakfast!) - and I order a mushroom risotto - there's some kind of error so I wait an hour and have Fish & Chip and Pizza envy as they come up, then Chocolate Mousse envy - how good does that look (and I try a bit of Oliver's - very rich, very
good!). Risotto OK, and Passion Fruit juice delicious, and decide am going to come back for chocolate mousse later and order pizza to have cold on the bus journey tomorrow (after the last bus journey!). Back to the hotel to secure my parcel and leave my coat behind, then head round some shops - buy a small bag for $1 to use for evening's later (maybe), and some postcards from Mr Cu. Also find a couple of books in the Book Exchange, including a guide to Cambodia - must actually look at it. Was about $9 for both books... and the Cambodia one was clearly photocopied. Cassandra went back later and bought one, asking her what the pricing was - on how new they look and how thick they are apparently (hence why the Mills & Boon I asked her about was about the same as a good book!).
Found some more flooded streets and decided it was time for my chocolate mousse, headed back, but they had run out so I tried the internet whilst I waited for my pizza, but it wasn't playing ball. Back to the hotel AGAIN, Cassandra's there - we decide to get our
memory cards turned to DVDs and go to the post office. Bargain the DVD down to 70,000 Dong ($4.3), which is a lot more than my last DVD, but less than they first wanted! Head to the Post Office - that's complicated - didn't realise they have to open it and seal it as inspected before it is sent, so the envelope it took me ages to buy is a waste of time as they then wrap it in brown paper and tape. She checks through everything and my 3 cents worth of Lao money is rejected (oh well, can probably post that from Australia!), but everything else goes - about $5.50 for surface mail or $7 for airmail, so might as well go air. So off that went, accompanied by a load of paperwork including my passport number, to/from address in about 3 places and a list of what I was sending (I went generic!). Back to the photo shop and they show that it's been a successful job, before I head here for the internet cafe, After, went for dinner - another Hue set menu, relaxed with a book whilst most of the group went to the DMZ
pub to watch the football, then to sleep.
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Erika
non-member comment
Oh the difference....
When we were in Hue in June, we had to shelter in the air con, because it was FAR too hot to go out during the day time!