Advertisement
Published: November 28th 2005
Edit Blog Post
I am popular!
Here I am at the school where everyone is pleased to see me! It's cold!!! Don't know what has happened to the weather but the sun has gone and the rain is here! Suddenly I am glad to have my fleece! It has been a source of constant annoyance for the last few weeks because it does not fit in my bag. The conical hats which I now have, have taken over that role. If the sun does come out again I will be in real bag trouble!
We arrived in Hue two days ago after driving from Hoi An. It is supposed to be a stunning drive but as it was raining hard and VERY misty we could barely see out of the bus window let alone anything else!
We did a motorbike tour yesterday and it was fantastic. It was definitely one of the best things we have done. We all got a bike and a driver (and a helmet which is something of a rarity in this country) and then we set off in convoy. I think we were a source of amusement to the locals as they often seemed to be laughing at us as we all zoomed by. I don't think it was helped by the fact
that we were all wearing very bright ponchos. I had a very nice pink one!
We started off by going through lots of little villages which was really interesting as you can really get "in there" on the back of a bike. Sometimes we were rather more in there that I would have liked! There was a very close call with a cyclist and then later on a suicidal chicken!
We stopped at a primary school in one of the villages. You would have though we were pop stars the way they greeted us. They all came running out the school to say hello. When we got out our cameras to take photos they went crazy. They LOVE having there photo taken. All the children we passed on the bikes were very friendly and kept shouting out hello to us as we zoomed by.
As well as the school we stopped at several other places including one where we could see lots of water buffaloes in the field. They are very common here and they use them to work the field. We also went to a conical hat maker. Hue is THE place to buy hats. They
Water buffalos
These things are everywhere. are very cheap (about US$1) considering the amount of work that goes into them.
We went to lunch at a monastery where we had this fantastic vegetarian lunch. After that we went a monk who spent an hour talking to us and teaching us about mediation. He showed us 8 different mediation positions starting from the full lotus position and ending up kneeling. It was fine for me because I can sit in the lotus position but it was not quite the same story for Tim. He can't even cross his legs! The monk found his poor effort all very amusing! He was not the only one who struggled though. All the guys were a bit on the unflexible side.
In the afternoon we stopped at a pagoda and went on a river cruise as well a bit more driving around the general area.
It was such a fantastic day as you got to see the real Vietnam. We did end up very cold and wet though and at times the weather looked decidedly like home!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.194s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 18; qc: 72; dbt: 0.1523s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb