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The Renufication Express bound for Hue.... overnight train with a difference! Certainly not to the usual standards i'd been used to in Thailand...just about 10 times worse with a few HUGE rats scuttering about from carriage to carriage! Bumpy, cold, noisey & dirty.... but hey, it was all part of my 'Nam experience. After all what can you expect from a 60 year old rickety train that runs every day and clearly hasn't been cleaned since 1947...
Arriving in Hue.... (actually pronounced 'hway'...), the former imperial capital city of Vietnam, I had 2 days to take in the sights and the 'apparent' slower pace of this 'apparent' tranquil city.... not as slow and tranquil as i'd been informed....Arrived at my guesthouse for the next 2 days pretty early in the morning, so after not the most relaxing of nights decided to catch 40 winks before heading out to the pool to cool off in the dire humidity.
Early afternoon, headed to a small cafe run by a deaf family. The food was out of this world and the service even better. Even got myself a hand made bottle opener made by the man of the house. You'll see from my pics...and wonder how the hell its supposed to work...but it really does. Be great for the bbq's back home! In the cafe, the walls are covered by signatures and mentions from everyone who has visited over the past 10 years. It's pretty amazing when you see how far some people have travelled, where they've been or off to next. Took a while to find a space but i got one...and left a little mentioned from "the wee scotty totty"!
Time for a cyclo tour of the city, stopping off at the Imperial Citadel and one of the Nyuyen emperors tombs. A cyclo in Hue is basically the back wheel of a bike (bicycle) and handle bars pushing a wooden sort of seat thing attached to the front. Pretty hard to explain but i'm sure you'll get it from my pics. So off to the citadel...had the grand tour which basically took about 2 hours...most of it interesting, some of it not so interesting. It was a pretty awesome structure to see considering it had been so heavily bombed by the Americans. There are actually still the original bullet holes from in the Kings old chambers when America attacked. I won't go into the ins and outs of the history of the Citadel, I'm sure most of you that know anything about the Vietnam war prob hve a fair idea, and those of you who don't are prob not that interested anyway. Probably the most impressive parts of the Citadel is a surreal world of deserted gardens and ceremonial halls along with the forbidden Purple City which was reserved for the private life of the Emperor. The only servants allowed inside were eunuchs, who posed no threats to the royal concubines.....and for those of you who don't know what a concubine is...well in a polite way it was his mistresses...not just one, or two or three...but round about 500...lucky lucky man! Just as well his wife didn't have a say in the matter!!!
Hue is actually quite pretty at night. As you cross the river, the bridges, boats and trees are all decorated with pretty fairy lights. For dinner, sampled another local Vietnamese restaurant. Clare, Rebecca & myself have decided to do it family style. Basically picked 10 different dishes from the menu and got stuck in...yum! Ended up back at the bar at the guesthouse quite early on. Had a big day to follow....5 hours on a boat going down the Perfume River! Strange but all the bars seem to close at 10pm, so after we ordered our last round of beers, the staff seemed to clear up, turn most of the lights off and leave. Just as we were finishing our drinks...alone... there came this almighty bang from the fridge. I assumed it was a cat jumping from the back, as they always seem to do in outside bars. Clare thought a rat, since they are huge in Vietnam and the place is infested, but Rebecca who was the only person in full view of the fridge let out this horrendous scream, jumped off her stool and ran away! At this point we didn't quite no what to think and are totally rooted to the spot. From about 100 yards away behind a wall Rebecca calls out "its not furry enough to be a cat and its not small enough to be a rat....it's a cross between a Kangaroo & a possum...!!!"..... eh, no1. there are no kangaroos in Vietnam and no2. i think she's lost the plot! Too much humidity and not enough oxygen to the brain! We thought it prob best to call it a night after that!
Early start to board our dragon boat for the next couple of hours. Set of down the Perfume River which funnily enough didn't smell anything like perfume!! The boat was run by a really lovely family and their 4 year old son (whom everyone else was confinced was a girl) was pretty entertaining. He/she was loving the attention by everyone else on the boat and at one stage was even driving!! Our first stop down the river was the Perfume Pagoda. Pretty impressive pagoda to be honest. Seen a lot in my time in Thailand but this was a stunner. Had the grand tour which always takes 3 hours longer than it should but it was still pretty worthwhile. Was really good to hear more about Buddhism in Vietnam and how Buddhist have and still do protest on war. Their culture seems very different from those in Thailand.
Towards the end of the tour around the Pagoda's gardens, everyone went to the happy house....except me and Clare, who decided to take ridiculous pictures of each other to brighten up the morning. This then quickly led to some yoga on the grass infront of a lilly pond...most of which i was in pain as i'm not the most flexible in my old age. At which point a crowd rapidly gathered...mostly Japanese tourists taking photos! Clearly thought this was a timetabled thing in the gardens for anyone to join in!!!!
Next stop Tomb of Tu Duc. Emperor Tu Duc's tomb complex really was a majestic site. The area was lined with pine trees set alongside a small lake. Inside are statues of the guards, demons and animals before reaching the ancient burial grounds and tomb of Tu Duc. Insense is still used at the tomb and is where prayers are held constantly. In the silence of the grounds, we could hear the chants of monks praying to the spirits. It was almost uplifting in a strange sort of way!
We had lunch on the boat on the 2 hour journey back to Hue. I have some really fantastic pics of the little boy from the boat. Think he took a shine to me. Spent the best part of the next 2 hours entertaining him with my camera, ipod, sunglasses & clares hat! Def the best photos I have of my adventures in SE Asia. A bit of culture from the west mixed with the culture of Vietnam.
Later that night was probably the funniest...and weirdest part of my experience in Vietnam yet! We went to a Royal Banquet...just for a laugh...but wait for it....we had to dress up. For the past 2 days we'd visited sites of royality and had learned about emperors, kings, concubines etc.... When we arrived at what looked like a normal restuarant, we were asked to pick a folded piece of paper out of a hat.... but not look!!! When everyone had arrived and taken their pick we could all look at our mysterious piece of paper.... turns out this is who we had to be for the evening....a different member of ancient royalty. Clare was the King which was hilarious cause their were about 5 men there who easily could've been king, Rebecca was a concubine...lucky lady... , and i was the Prince...again pretty funny due to the male:female ratio. We were asked if we wanted to swap with any of the guys but did we hell....who said Woman shouldn't be in control! The rest of the evening kind of continued in this way....since Clare was King she was basically in control of the night. We couldn't sit until she sat, couldn't eat until she eat and if she made a request by anyone they had to it...so she requested I sing the Australian national anthem at the top of the table....clearly i just took the absolute pee out of it and sang God Save the Queen vs Flower of Scotland!!!
Apart from almost wetting myself the rest of the night, the food was pretty good and we had a little Vietnamese band play for us while we eat....and you'll not believe their final song....Auld Lang Syne... couldn't move by this point. They sang in Vietnamese and hearing such a Scottish song being played on fine strings and making "twangs" every sentence was hilarious. Was really impressed though! I recorded it on my camera so i'll do my best to upload it for your delicate ears to hear!
Definately was a good end to my time in Hue....
Cxx
Ps.. think thats me FINALLY managed to upload the rest of pics from Halong Bay...takes forever out here!
Pps.. you might wonder about the vlindfolded pigs on the back of a bike...that was on the way back to the guesthouse after the Perfume River...and yes they were still alive...well for the next half hour anyway!
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