Hue & the royal tombs

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Decided to take an organised tour of the royal tombs of the Nguyen dynasty as they were a litle far from town to attempt walking in 38c heat. We started out with a short boat ride on the Perfume river, so called because of all of the sweet smelling trees and flowers that once lined it's banks, to a former Mandarins house. There we drank copious quantities of Jasmine tea while Blue, our guide, filled us in on life in Vietnam in those times, which were not so long ago given the last emporer abdicated in 1945. From there it was a bus trip to the Thien Mu Pagoda, a really beautiful pagoda built on a hill overlooking the Perfume river with a monastery attached. Since the 1960's the pagoda has been a focal point for political demonstrations. Older readers may remember the image that flashed across the world news in the early 1960's of a Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Duc, who drove from this monastery all the way to a major intersection in Saigon where he sat in the lotus position and set himself alight in protest at the Diem regime's discriminatory policies towards Buddhists. The car he drove is now housed at the monastery and regarded as a relic. It was, quite unnervingly, the same as the very first car I owned, same colour and everything. We were then escorted to a local cafe for a buffet lunch, very tasty, and thence on to the tombs of Minh Mang (1820 - 1840), Khan Dino, and Tu Duc, each spectacular in their own way. The last stop was at a little village to watch incense sticks being made. The young lady we were watching works 10 hours a day a day knocks out 2000 sticks.

The guy beside me in the bus was from Japan, turns out he's a third Dan in karate, nice guy. I've really got to get to Japan one day soon - the list grows.

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