Hue

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After an bad nights sleep on the train we arrive in Hue (Pronounced Whey with a French accent). We only have one day in Hue and our included activity is a tour of the town by motorbike. Our tour takes us around some world heritage sites in the city. First stop is the Citadel (Fortress) that makes up the heard of the old city. The Citadel used to be able to hold 70,000 troops when it was first built. It was was bombed heavily during the American/Vietnam war and is now being reconstructed as only one original building remains.

Next we headed out to some rice fields, where workers were bringing in this seasons crop. They place about 40kg of rice on spiked wooden planks, which they carry back to carts to extract the grains later.

Next, we head down to the river to Thien Mu pagoda. At the back of the temple a car is housed, used by Thich Quang Duc (one of the monks from this temple) to drive to Saigon in 1963. He then got out of the car and set himself on fire as a protest at the discrimination from the current regime against Buddhists in Vietnam. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thich_Quang_Duc)

We then visit an old arena where Elephants and Tigers were put to battle for the entertainment of the King. The tigers used to have their claws removed to ensure that the Elephants would win the battle, as the Elephant is seen as an important animal in Vietnamese culture.

For lunch we are taken to a Buddest temple, where we are given a completely vegetarian meal. Monks will not eat meat, so they become very good cooks and use tofu to make many of their dishes.

After lunch we see how incense and traditional hats are made, and head over to one of the kings temples on the outskirts of town. Driving around out of town tourists are quite an unusual sight and children wave at us as we pass, it's quite surreal being the centre of attention like this

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Photos

Lunch
Complete with immitation meat on the bone

Child waving to us
One of many!

Comments

[Sam]

I think i've found my desktop background, you wearing a teepee! That year doing photography was definately not wasted :p xxxxx

[kirsty-sammys sister]

good 2 hear u are having a good time i thought i wuld leave a note because i have no homework and sammy sent me the link, anyway did u buy that hat or was it a complimentary gift to those attempting to roll incence???? =D p.s sammy i am not doing this 2 annoy u