Hanoi to Hue

Marc and I just popped back to our hotel on a motorbike after having a great dinner with an American doctor in the town of Hue in central Vietnam. Since we last wrote we took the night train back to Hanoi, spent two days there and are now in Hue. (Pronounced H'way not Huey as Marc is continually reminding me) :)

We started out our first morning back in Hanoi on a bit of a negative note. We picked up a metered cab with a "friendly" driver as we didn't know how far it was to the lake near our hotel. When he dropped us off at the lake his meter said 17 500 dong ($1.50)when I looked at it and when Marc looked at it it said $185 000 dong ($12.00). We figure that in between when I looked at it and Marc looked at it he must have pressed a button to get the second figure. As it was only a couple of blocks ride we refused to pay the second price. Our cab driver immediately flew into a rage, yelling obscenities at us. Marc offered him 30 000, then 100 000 which he refused. At this point Marc called him a thief and the driver pulled out a MACHETE from under his seat. He never directly pointed it at us and I do not think we were in too much physical danger, the knife was just being used as leverage to get his money, which we quickly gave to him. We wrote down the name of his company and his liscence number and had someone at the tourist office phone the cab company the next day. A bad start to our last couple days in Hanoi but we were able to put it behind us and realize that all the other interactions we have had here have been extremely positive.

After finding our hotel (and waking the proprieter up at 5:30am) we had a nap and then started our day with coffee and the traditional Vietnamese donair. Apparently pork donairs are very popular in Vietnam (and where else can you get a PORK donair?!) and they are oh so tasty. Some spiced pork, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and sauce, who wouldn't like them?
Afterwards we made our way to the Museum of Ethnology by motorbike. We did not drive the motorbike ourselves but it was our first experience being in the traffic of Hanoi. You get a very different view from "inside" the traffic than you do as a pedestrian trying not to get run over.

The museum of Ethnology had information and artifacts about all the various tribes of Vietnam. There were also a variety of model homes, show homes if you will, representing the different methods used to build homes in Vietnam in the last 1000 years.

These statues are decorating a royal tomb!

After taking the night train (again! Really this is quite a good way to travel, you don't get that great of a sleep but you wake up in another town and your accomodation is paid for!) to Hue we headed to the citadel and Emporers palace here.

Today we rented a dragon boat (all to ourselves. Also not your traditional Canadian dragon boat) and headed to another Emporer's tomb. This one was initially his home and then become his tomb after he died.


After the tombs we headed down stream to the Thien Mu Pagoda, initially built in 1601 and renovated and reconstructed several times since. While entering we noticed a group of Vietnamese war veterans getting their picture taken on the steps. We knew they were veterans as they were all wearing name tags and army hats and war medallions. I mentioned to Marc that I would really like to talk to them about their war experiences and was wondering about both the atrocities they had witnessed as well as ones they had been a part of. While entering the temple part of the pagoda, we noticed a few of them entering as well and smiled at them. At this point one of them came over and started talking to us in Vietnamese and smiling and wanting to shake our hands. He shook our hands then started making gun gestures and speaking rapidly in Vietnamese while pointing to his medals, apparently explaining that he was a soldier. The next thing we knew there was a line of about 10 of them all wanting to shake Marc's hand. It was a very charged moment, being confronted with a line of grave vietnamese old men wearing war medals. We are both a bit perplexed as to why this happened, perhaps they thought we were Americans and felt the need to come over and greet us as part of their closure on their group trip? (We also thought later that maybe Marc looks like their picture of how they remember American soldiers . . . a shaved head and tall with an athletic build.) Regardless of why they decided to come and shake our hands it was a very emotional experience, and a definite highlight of our trip to Vietnam.


Tonight we walked along the river at sunset and as previously mentioned met an American doctor at our restaurant. We actually didn't have enough money with us to pay (oops!) so Marc had to rent a motorbike to quickly get from our hotel to the restaurant. This ended up being a great experience as we took the bike around Hue and ended up going back to the citadel and driving along the path of Timh Tam lake (yes you read that correctly Julie!) and seeing dozens of couples making out on their motorbikes (Seriously, there was about 50 couples, all along the canal spaced out every 10meters). We had them pinned one at a time like horny deer in the headlights. hee hee

This computer is being a pain, so I will just throw the rest of the pictures at the end, out of order.

The Emperer's poetry terrace.

Boatride

The tallest flagpole in Vietnam, as seen from the top of the citadel.

Royal Theatre

Hue is famous for its fancy food. Too bad Marc wasn't feeling very good when he ordered this huge set menu. He is better now.

A random elephant by an abandoned mansion.

The forbidden city's own reflective lake.

Marc playing with kids in the park in Hanoi. Hanoians love their parks.

Hanoi at night

The entrance to the citadel

Everywhere we go we see people getting wedding pictures taken.

Off to Hoi An to get some clothes tailored!!