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Published: August 12th 2014
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Today it was time to leave the lovely town of Hoi An, I was sad to leave as it's such a nice place to be and I definitely want to come back one day. It was time to head to Hue (hway) with the new group of Stay people.
We left the hotel just after 8am and had a 4 hour journey to our next stop over. On the way we stopped off for a comfort break and to take some photos of the views. We had driven up in to the mountains which run along the coast. The pit stop was at the site of and old French fort.
From there we continued to our destination. We arrived at the hotel and had a quick turn around before we headed off for lunch. After some yummy food 5 of us headed off on a motor bike tour of the local area and the highlights and tourist spots. The weather started off hot and sunny, but it clouded over and in the distance we could see lightening and rain clouds in the distance. However we were lucky and managed to avoid the bad weather all
afternoon.
I looked at the speedo on our bike and it was around 35k/ph no idea what that is in miles per hour but it seemed pretty fast. I had a helmet and shades on but just shirt, shorts and flips flops, no other protective gear lol. I felt quite safe and had no qualms about us having and accident.
We rode through small towns and the countryside, avoiding other moped users, children, cars, chickens and dogs and a football rolling out into the toad. Our riders also negotiated crossing busy roads with no traffic lights, junctions and roundabouts. I was busy clicking away on my camera to worry about what was ahead, that was my drivers job lol.
Our first stop was a duck farm so we took the obligatory duck shots lol, then up the road and ,omg the river some shots of local boats and water buffalo. Next we visited the Japanese style covered bridge. It was donated to the village by a local lady who was the wife of a wealthy man. Sadly she was not able to conceive children and she thought if she did something
good for the village the good karma would be repaid and she would get pregnant. Sadly this was not the case. But the local people fevered her And people still go there to give thanks for the bridge and there is a poem dedicated to,her on the bridge.
Next we saw a flood marker to show how high the flood water was in the rainy seasons in 1995 and 1999.
Then just next door was the rices museum. There was a lovely kip lady who was about 70 called Mrs Ho. She showed us how the get the rice fine the stalks,remove the husks and the layer of starch on the out side if the grain. She also showed how they grind the rice to make rice flower, how they sow, plough, irrigate and harvest the rice. Our guide also showed how they catch the fish in the padi fields during rainy season when the river floods the fields.
From there it was off to the mausoleum, which is dedicated to three emperors and where one of them is buried with his wife and there are also a couple of graves
outside the wall and a obelisk.
We then visited a stall and were shown how incense sticks and traditional hats are made with the help of my driver Phway.
Then we did some off roading to take in a view of river and forest which was planted in the area where a French fort used to be. Then we visited. A phi theatre similar to those ones in Rome. Here the emperor used to,watch fights between elephants and tigers. The elephant always won as it was seen as an image of power. To make sure this happened the tiger had it's claws, whiskers and incisor teeth removed. The practice continued up to around the 1920s!
From there we drove to a pagoda where there was a prayer service happening so we watch from a distance. Sadly at its point my battery ran out of juice I guess I had gotten a little trigger happy on the back of my bike a drained the power lol.
Our final destination was the citadel back in Hue. This was a huge walled city within a city, we didn't go inside as
it was just a lot if ruins but had a little walk round the outside. I hope to get some photos from the guys on the trip somy tour photos are completed.
We got back to the hotel paid and tipped our drivers and the had showers, changed and had a little chill time before heading out for dinner to a local restaurant. We all ended up having early nights as we were tired and some of the group had had a late night again the night before lol.
Xxx
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