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Published: April 17th 2010
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So decorative
Incense sticks at an incense making village On our last full day in Hoi An, grey clouds covered the sky and a thin drizzle came from the sky. This weather seemed to follow us to Hue, and then further up into Hanoi. Everyday when we woke up, we'd check the sky and yes, grey again, not one bit of blue in sight.
Hue is supposed to be Vietnam's cultural, historical and political city owing to the fact it was once the capital city. We met up with Birgit and Lukas again and decided to do a 'sights' tour. Later in the night we'd finally decided what to do so Nick dutifully went down to the cafe where we saw something advertised and picked up a pamphlet. After deciding to book, Birgit and I went over to the cafe. Nick warned me before we left “be careful, there's some really seedy characters around”. As we headed out we were met on the corner by some young men sitting on their motorbikes, they nodded hello to us and we smiled back. Then on the next corner another man smiled at us and we smiled back. We got to the cafe and made the booking then headed back to the
Herbal remedy anyone?
Chinese medicine in Hue town hotel. I really didn't know what Nick was talking about. Nick told me once we got back that he was never going to walk alone in Asia late at night again. The guys on the corner apparently said “You want Boom Boom (code for you know what) girl? You want marijuana?”, and hassled him mercilessly, as did the other guy at the corner. Never had I felt so naive!
The following day we visited the tombs of some old Kings. Our tour guide gleefully told us that the Kings should be remembered by their nicknames which were: Smallpox King, Homosexual King and Sexy King. Smallpox King had a very expansive and decorated tomb. He is known as Smallpox King as he sadly produced no heirs due to smallpox, even though he had two hundred concubines. Homosexual King was chosen by the French and also produced no heirs (surprise, surprise), although he did have 12 rather bored concubines. Homosexual King also liked wearing make-up and fancy clothes. Vietnam doesn't strike me as a hugely tolerant nation but this King reigned for 12 years with no apparent problems. However the one the tour guide talked in glowing tones about was Sexy
A the tombs
a bit of stick fighting in amongst the warriors King, who maintained 500 concubines and had countless children. It is said that most of his Kingly duties were neglected to due the “upkeep” of his harem which kept him up most of the night.
As Phoebe had suddenly taken on Lukas's Star Wars obsession, it didn't take long before they were role playing Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobe with light saber sticks (or as Phoebe says “light saver”, hihi). They battled with sticks for the best part of the day and while we were concerned someone was going to get hurt it seemed that their styles complemented each other. Phoebe went in with all guns blazing trying to inflict maximum damage and Lukas tried (successfully) to ward her off. Thankfully no injuries were sustained and they had a great time.
One of the saving graces of Hue was that down from our hotel there was another hotel with a restaurant and a pool. Although service was a little slow and strange at times, the food was excellent and were were sure the chef must have trained in Italy. They had pasta and pizza galore, all traditional Italian recipes at reasonable prices. At times like these I like
to wonder who much the same dish would cost in Italy....I'm sure not the $AUS3 that we paid. Of course they also had excellent Vietnamese food so we could indulge in either depending on how the mood took us. As I said the service was strange.....Phoebe once ordered soda water; 10 minutes later the waitress comes out with a 600 mL bottle of beer and said “sorry, no have soda water, beer instead?”. I pointed to Phoebe and said told her it was for my daughter (even though I was quite sure she knew this anyway), she just smiled and kept standing there with the beer and asked if I wanted her to pour it.
We decided to catch the night train to Hanoi as it is a long trip. This time we thought we'd go first class as it wasn't too much more expensive and we'd heard stories about finding mice and cockroaches in the carriages....I can tell you know, mice and cockroaches don't discriminate between the classes!
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christine giles
non-member comment
humour
Thanks for such a funny blog.Surpassed current comedy festival i have been going to.Go Phoebe with your version of a martial art,good as your trumpet blowing! Love AC