Today was the day of the dreaded motorbike tour. I was quite looking forward to it, my mum was the one dreading it. My driver was a silent man, I don't know if he wasn't interested in small talk, or if he didn't speak English. Once we were all on the bikes, the leader shouted "Are you ready!?" Very loud, and the other drivers shouted "Yea!" back enthusiastically, and also very loud. Then the leader shouted "3, 2, 1" (very loud) and everyone else shouted "Hoorah" (very loud), then he swung his arm round in the air, and we were off. They all seemed super into it, and did it every time we set off.
The roads in Hue are much quieter than Hanoi, and so everything seemed super serene, though I don't doubt it was still crazier than roads back home. My driver always insisted on being second in line, behind the leader, and ruthlessly cut off anyone trying to overtake him. I have no idea why. Anyway, our first stop was Thien Mu pagoda. It means sacred lady pagoda, as apparently a prophetic lady ghost used to haunt the site, and thus the pagoda was named after her. Regardless, it looked very cool, and it's image has become a symbol of Hue. We also saw an alter there, and had a crash course in Vietnamese Buddhism, and also saw the car the famous monk who self immolated in 1963 (I think) drove to Saigon to set himself on fire.
I don't know who goes in the top door
Then we were back on the bikes again, off to a riverside village, which was fairly unremarkable save for an old bridge, which apparently made it a better place to live in the olden days. We tried some sugar cane juice, it was pretty nasty. Then it was back on the bikes again, this time to emperor Tu Duc's tomb.
This was another site than had been used by guerrillas in the war, and had subsequently been bombed, so more ruins, and more reconstruction. The emperor's living quarters were intact though (why he used to go and live at his future tomb on occasion I have no idea), so we had a good look round there, but no photography allowed. Next was the concubines housing, almost completely destroyed, followed by the actual tomb of the emperor. Except it wasn't, his body was buried somewhere secret, in the grounds, but not in the tomb area, so his enemies could not desecrate his body. The people who buried him were put to death, so his burial place is a secret to this day.
It was insanely hot today, 38-39 degrees, so I was pretty glad when we stopped off at a random temple for lunch. I was not so glad to discover all the food was vegetarian, but in fact it was delicious! Fig salad was a highlight, plus there were some cute temple puppies, and a funky caterpillar.
Another short bike ride later we were at the perfume river, which also flowed through Hue a few kilometres downriver, so we caught a ride on a dragon boat. Unfortunately, it sounds more exciting than it is, as it's basically a decent sized motor boat with dragons on the prow. It was still nice floating down the river, though at this point I was severely tired for some reason. Lucky then that after arriving in Hue it was only a short ride back to our hotel.
After a meaty 2.5 hour nap, and a coffee to cure my headaches (I hadn't had one since yesterday morning, and I realised this was why my brain was trying to escape my skull), we went out to an Italian restaurant for tea. I had pizza, since we rarely have it at home (though it seemed as though it was constant pizza whilst I was away!), and then it was home for bed, as we were leaving Hue the next morning.
Thank god you survived, I almost choked on my pizza while reading about that bike ride
ReplyDeleteThat hat is really fit. So is that caterpillar.
ReplyDelete