Vietnam....meh....

---

Decided to go on a tour today down the Song Huong (Perfume) River. Guy knocked on our door at five to 8 and again we had to follow him on his motorbike (!) down to the boat. It was quite a big boat with decorative dragons heads on the front. We were first on but we were soon joined by a little crowd and we all had little plastic chairs to sit on (luckily the river is very calm). The cruise was quite scenic, lots of boats and mountains in the distance. First they showed us the Sampan floating village which to us just looked like a few boats tied up near the river edge. Next we stopped off at.....well somewhere....where they put on a martial arts display, it cost 30,000 dong and we weren't that interested so we sat in a cafe next door instead and I oo'ed and aw'ed at a cute little puppy grappling with his mam.

Back on the boat the next stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda which was free so we graced it with our presence! This was the home pagoda of a monk who burned himself to death on a busy intersection in the 60's as a protest against the president's policies. The car in which he traveled in is on display at the pagoda. The octagonal pagoda is set in very scenic grounds and provides a stunning view over and down the river. After another hour on the boat we stopped at Hon Chen Temple but as it cost and didn't look too impressive we sat down by the river instead. Back on the boat they'd set up tables and served up our free lunch; tofu and tomato, endless rice and noodles. We all tucked in and I was reminded listening to the other travellers of how subjective an experience travelling is. Everyone likes different places and recommends different things. Many people don't seem to rate Cambodia as a tourist destination but we loved it whereas Vietnam is so popular yet so far it's been one of our least favourites (this may change once we explore up north though).

Another hour and we arrived at the Tomb of Minh Mang an emperor is the 1800's who for all intense and purposes seems a bit of a player! He had about 500 wives and going 200 children!! Rumour has it he slept with 6 women in one night and impregnated 5 of them, obviously something up with the 6th!! The temple is set in gorgeous surroundings- a big lake and pretty gardens. From here we got on the a/c (ah bliss) bus to the other two tombs but as we'd seen the most impressive one we weren't too fussed about these.

Lastly they showed us how incense is made aka tried to make us buy crap 😉 We were only overcharged a couple of times today on drinks which you kinda expect at touristy things so not too bad. Guide was quite nice, seemed to have a genuine enthusiasm for his job. After being dropped off back in town we ate at the Little Italy restaurant then bought our ticket to Hanoi for tomorrow night- night bus again urgh. Spent the evening watching episodes of Glee and SATC 😊

---

Photos

car
You know the burning monk on the Rage Against the Machine album cover? This was his car