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Published: September 30th 2007
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Bike ride in Hue
My red motorbike! Hi Friends and Family,
Meet up time 07:00. Set off 08:00
Today, we set off in a convoy of 14 motorbikes and drivers. I picked a red motorbike ‘cos I liked the bright colour and the driver turned out to be Ngon, the Hue local guide and the Team Leader for the day!
Ngon was funny, knowledgeable, and not bad looking. I was lucky to have him nearby ‘cos I also got private sessions while we were on the bikes! Ngon even got a little flirty, but I kept it all in perspective!
We visited the stately Thien Mu Pagoda and the Museum of Fine Art. We learnt the history and philosophy behind Buddhism ands the symbols of honouring and worshipping the dead and or royalty.
Yesterday, I enclosed a video of lots of carp fish swimming within the grounds of the Citadel. The carp there are never caught and never eaten because its believed the carps grow to be dragons and dragons represent the Emperor. The turtle represents long life, phoenix represents peace, elephants represent wealth and are considered to be indestructible and are the most holy animal of the Cham people. Dogs represent a
Bike ride in Hue
Some of the bikes faithful friend (even though some are eaten but apparently not in Hue!) and water buffalos represent the farmers and unicorns represent wealth too.
The tombs are usually buried with all the treasures of the Emperor so that their exact location is not normally revealed in order to avoid gravediggers and enemies of the State!
The bike ride was really cool. I’ve ridden long distances by camel in India, horses and bike jeeps in the Dominican Republic (where my horse began to gallop out of control. I was so scared). Elephants in Thailand, buggy bikes in Poland and motorbikes from point to point only. I’ve never driven a motorbike longer, and we had a whole days ride!
The ride was reasonably slow, safe n’ comfortable and we all had helmets. It rained most of the day but we were well catered for as ponchos were provided by the various motorbike drivers and anyway, a bit of rain doesn’t kill ‘cos it was fantastically hot, so cooling down wasn’t such a bad thing!
Re-the bikes again, I repeat, the ride was so very cool and I felt like an old rocker roaring away into the sunset and to
freedom but there were moments (through no fault of my driver who was also the local Tour Leader), where I had nightmares of me falling backwards and breaking my skull on the road, or on the other hand, me as Catgirl falling backwards and rolling (Martial Arts-style) across the road, and challenging the various traffic vehicles not to squash me!
The Thien Mu Emperor was known as a literary man and a poet. Short in stature, he sired no children but was enormously loved by his people. On his tomb he inscribed how sorry he was that he couldn’t protect the people from the French and how sorry he personally couldn’t father children and had to adopt. This led to a lot of chaos in later years, in Vietnam.
We saw a lot of Pagodas and Towers that are important in Vietnam. The Buddha is worshipped in a Pagoda and the Emperor or other departed souls are worshipped and remembered in the Temple via the Buddhist monks.
We met some of the student monks who tended to be young boys with tufts of hair. We were also guided around their school. It’s considered to be a great
Bike ride in Hue
The Perfume River honour to serve Buddha by being a monk.
We also saw how conical hats were made. The base is a circular frame; the strands of raffia are put on. In between, paper chains and decorations are placed on the raffia then covered with more strands. Placed in the light, the various designs can be seen. How clever!
Onto the bikes again, a quick ride to the supermarket and then back to the hotel. I had a great day.
See ya on the train on the morrow!
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