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Perfume River - Not quite Chanel No.5 but not bad!!
Paddling home for lunch down the perfume river - Hue. We decided that the best means of transport to get to our next destination would be by long distance bus. Here in Vietnam there are several companies that offer what they call "open tour bus". You can get a ticket that takes you from North to South with the opportunity to jump off and on at any of the dozen or so official tourist stops you like for as little as $22. The bus is very popular, we spoke to a couple from Oz who had used the bus to get to Ninh Binh from Hanoi and they gave it the thumbs up. We bought a ticket packed our backpacks (again) and waited in anticipation for the bus to pick us up from the Hotel at 21.30. The bus arrived on time, Ha put our luggage on board and we hopped on with our Ipods, books and a pack of cards at the ready to stem the boredem of the
TEN HOUR journey south to Hue. What followed can only be described as "the worst mistake of the whole trip". I was grabbed by the arm as soon as I stepped onto the bus by the conductor guy who dragged
Perfect Pagoda Photo
Our first day in Hue - relaxing at the Pagoda me to the back of the bus, by this time the driver had already started to set the wheels in motion and we were off. "There's NO SEATS" I'm shouting down the bus to Barry who I can see is thinking the same thing as me
where the hell are we gonna sit , the conductor guy knows exactly where we're gonna sit.......he lurches forward and grabs two Vietnamese lads up onto their feet and smiles at me "You sit here" Now I'm feeling really puzzled!! One of the two Vietnamese guys smiles at me as he squeezes past me and edges towards the front of the bus so I ask him "where will you two sit?" he smiles again and says "we go down", so now I'm feeling a little better about the situation - they obviously DO have empty seats at the front, so I squash onto the back seat quickly followed by Barry who is looking as bewildered as I was a couple of seconds ago. The back seat of a bus is the PITS, believe me when I say this, this was not a nice experience!! Poor Barry got the seat right in the centre of
Hairy Statues
This is the first religious icon we have ever seen with real facial hair !!! the back seat which meant that everytime the driver went for the brakes Barry went for the front windscreen. I on the other hand was sitting off centre so had a reclined seat in front to keep me in place but NO leg room whatsoever......the journey had only just begun but already we knew it was going to be a nightmare. The driver really was a lunatic and poor Barry had a white knuckle ride ahead of him. It was hot, cramped, the back seat didn't recline an inch and to make the whole experience worse there was a massive digital clock illuminating the whole of the bus with the time, date and temperature........you couldn't ignore the damn thing and watching the seconds tick away SLOWLY was torture!!! I think you're all getting the picture by now of how bad we felt but put yourselves in this position with the added calamity of the following....... the two Vietnamese lads whose seats we'd been given were now SITTING IN THE AISLE ON
ONE PLASTIC CHILDS STOOL BETWEEN THEM!!!! We were horrified, not only had they lost their seats but now they had also become Barrry's human AIRBAG!!! I can't tell you
"Don't you want me baby?"
Phil Oakey abandons love child in Vietnam !!! how awful we felt especially because they were sitting in the centre of the aisle and had to move everytime a passenger wanted to pass by to use the toilet. Thankfully three and a half hours later we stopped at a roadside cafe and were met by another bus which was going to Laos and taking 30% of our passengers with them, we at least got better seats....not together but none the less we had a bit more comfort and the two Vietnamese lads got to re-claim the seat from hell at the back of the bus!!!
Hue (pronounced Hway) is in the central region of the country and is home to the tombs of the Nguyen Emperors, some beautiful pagodas and an ancient Citadel. We arrived.....knackered, hot and furious so the last thing we needed were touts baying for our blood. As usual we managed to escape them and headed off in search of a room which we eventually found at the Bao Minh Hotel. The Bao Minh is a lovely small place, our room was sunny and bright and had a lovely little balcony overlooking the quaint alley below - perfect!!!
The Thien Mu Pagoda stands
Trang Tien Bridge - The green variety
Just keep smiling....there's only 16 more colours to go !!! on the banks of the Perfume River, after a three hour nap to recover from the road journey from hell we hired a bike to get to the site and found it without any problems. The Pagoda was originally founded in 1601 but has been destroyed and re-built many times over the years. We spent a couple of hours looking around and enjoying the peaceful ambience and gorgeous views. We were also lucky enough to catch the monks "on duty", they had just finished praying in one of the small temples which houses a few lovely golden buddha's and is normally kept locked from the tourists. The Pagoda is also home to the original car that was driven to Saigon by Thich Quang Duc a resident monk of the Pagoda who in 1963 drove to Saigon and set himself alight in public as a protest to the persecution of Buddhists which was one of the policies of the then president Ngo Dinh Diem. The photograph of the blazing monk taken at the time was printed on the front pages of newspapers across the world and his death inspired others to carry out the same act.
The riverfront in Hue
Trang Tien Bridge - The pink variety
That reminds me, where's that lipstick I bought in Hanoi Baz? comes alive with colour on weekend evenings when the Trang Tien Bridge is illuminated in dozens of colours. On weekdays the bridge remains it's normal un-inspiring battleship grey colour!!! The waterfront park is the best place to view the "show" and the best place to get a drink or snack when lots of small temporary bars and foodstalls are set up at sunset to serve both tourists and locals. You can even have your photograph taken by one of several camera toting touts......we set the tri-pod up (much to the amusement of local kids) and did it ourselves, managing to get pictures of the bridge in every available hue.
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jonny red
non-member comment
Hi KidZ!!!! Love to see the pagoda! That bridge is like the one in Widnes, I dont think!!! Keep trucking!!! TTFN Jonny Red