Friday 27 September 2013

Hue

After a brief few hours in Hanoi again, we headed to Hue, until this point we hadn't traveled on the infamous sleeper buses of South East Asia.  We were not disappointed.  Our bus came with complimentary being shouted at and hit several times by a very angry bus driver because we hadn't taken our shoes off.

Now I'm sorry but maybe have a sign? Or tell us?  Either way it was not the best intro to sleeper buses which are also impossibly uncomfortable, and hard to sleep in, being that you are basically in a tiny slanting box.

Once we got to Hue, we set out to find our hostel, meeting our (now) very good friend Victor.


We started hanging out together and the first stop was The Imperial city, which was the fortress and palace of the emperor of Vietnam.  It was very Chinese in appearance and had many Chinese characters displayed.


 It was also very much in ruins a lot of it, and they were renovating it while we were there, a lot of damage had been done to it during the American-Vietnamese war, and you could still see many bullet holes.


It was a very beautiful and impressive building, and was huge in size.  My favorite part through was the massive pond of Koi Carp, which would come to the surface thinking you would feed them. I found it beautiful.


After this we decided to go down the Huong river on a dragon boat.  We went to look for one and a very persistent lady convinced us to go on her boat.


We were greeted on board by he husband and sons.  The boat ride then turned into an hour long sales pitch, of all there various wares.  First we were treated to her husbands coin collection which he was very proud of, and was very excited when Victor gave him some Swedish krona and wanted to know exactly how many American dollars it was worth, it was quickly pocketed to join the collection at a later date.


 It was around this time we all noticed the husband had two thumbs!


The wife then showed us various paintings she had done (Mum and Dad this is the Artist who did painted your Christmas presents!)  and various other items she had.  It was actually a really lovely boat ride (although the river itself was rather boring).


We then went for diner in a night market!


The next day me and Andy did a cookery lesson, which was really good fun, we first went to the market,










and then we made some weird and delicious Vietnamese cuisine, such as Rice paper spring rolls, and Pho (the national dish made of beef  and noodle soup) yummy!



The day after we did the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) tour where we met a new Australian friend Leah.  Since I didn't know much about the American/Vietnamese war it was really interesting, and very sad.  It was a long time on the bus, but the tour guide was really amazing.  My favorite thing he said was "A million Vietnamese mothers cried for their sons, A million American mothers cried for their sons".  It shows that the Vietnamese are starting to heal and move on from the war.  We learnt a lot about Guerrilla warfare, about the Vietcong, Ho Chi Minh and the victory of Communism and the Vietnamese.  We saw the tunnels that the Vietnamese lived in during the war.



I have no idea how they did it, it was really hot, dark and tiny down there!  We also saw an old American army air base, and saw all the old aircrafts and tanks.


Next Stop Hoi An!




2 comments:

  1. Not sure where you are now, but if your travels bring you to japan, please contact me! Im in tokyo!

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    1. Im in Australia now! Staying here two years. I would love to come to Japan at some point! How are you? You still doing graphic design over there?
      xxx

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