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Saz and Dave's travels
After breakfast today Dave, Zac and I decided we wanted to go on a boat trip to take in the sights of Hue. All the organised boat trips had already left at about 8am and it was already 10am by the time we had finished breakfast so we decided to go to the side of the river and organise our own trip. When we got to the river we were immediately hounded by 2 men offering us a round trip on their boat for 200,000 dong each (about 8 quid). We managed to barter this down to half the price with lunch included and the whole boat to ourselves. When we got on the boat we realised it was actually a family that was taking us on the trip - mum was cook, dad was captain, son was guide, daughter didn't do much and the guide's neice (about 3 years old) was just cute!
The first stop off in the boat was the Thien Mu Pagoda (as seen in the photo). This is the oldest pagoda in Hue and has been a focus for Buddhist protest against repression for a long time. In 1963 it became famous when one of its monks burned himself to death in Saigon, in protest of president Diem's regime. We saw his car here - a blue Austin that he drove to the site where he burned himself. Not very nice!
When we got back on the boat we got some lovely lunch cooked on board the boat (noodles, rice, spinach, fish and spring rolls) then sat back to relax until we got to the next stop. We played some crazy vietnemese card game with the guide (the son who was 20) which had no rules and none of us got the hang of after 3 games! The little girl also kept us entertained by trying to join in and chucking cards everywhere!
The next stop was the mausoleum of Emporor Tu Duc (ruled vietnam from 1847 to 1883). The emporor used this place to meditate, fish, boat and he was later buried here. The mausoleum was about 2km from the river uphill so being a bit lazy we got motorbike taxis there as it was so hot! It was a pretty stunning place, with a big lake , pine trees and pavilions. The one annoying thing about the place were the herds of Japanese tourists flocking around with their umbrellas to shade them from the sun, white gloves to stop them catching anything and white socks!
Our final stop off on our personal river tour was the Hon Chen Temple which was a bit rubbish really and we only stayed for 10 minutes. The guidebook says the temple 'is most memorable for its scenery of russet temple roofs among towering trees' but it didn't quite do it for us I'm afraid!
Our river trip ended at about 5pm and it was a really good day out - a good way of taking in various sights.
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