We did get to see a really neat dragon bridge, you have to love it when functional stuff gets gussied up. Actually, the Vietnamese seem to be excellent builders of bridges.....they haven't quite mastered smoothly linking them up to road though, as the big bumps getting on and off demonstrate (Nguyen calls this the Vietnamese "bum massage").
If it is possible, it feels even hotter in Hue. Even the locals are glistening with sweat. After checking in to our hotel we have 45 minutes spare, what to do...lets get some more clothes made (okay we might be slightly addicted). We only have a day here but that is more than enough to whip up 3 more tops.
Looking from our hotel balcony down to the street we see 16 rickshaws lined up, our next activity is a city tour by rickshaw. The rickshaws are single person, though we did see a who family of locals piled onto one. Rain and thunder threatens but yet again the weather remains fine. For the wet season we are yet to be stuck in a downpour so far. It is supposed to rain most days at this time of the year, we've been extremely lucky, except for the extreme heat and humidity. The first stop on our rickshaw tour is a street market containing mostly produce. We can call it fresh produce as there is nothing fresh about this. Raw chicken and fish have been sitting out all day in the heat with no refrigeration.
The flies and rats don't seem to mind but we're all hoping the restaurants we've been dining at buy their produce early in the day. Back onto our rickshaws, we stop at a few other locations around the city and are all terrified as we zigzag through the traffic, feeling very exposed sitting is a seat at the front of what is really just a push bike. The best moment was the sound of quacking behind us then seeing a scooter laden with 30 or so ducks cruising by us, quacking with the heads out of the basket's mesh.
Back at the hotel, time for a quick shower before dinner. Not wanting to brave the heat again we decide to eat at the hotel's restaurant. We went for the royal banquet, a 6 course feast. However, the food isn't what stands out at this restaurant, nor is it the lovely city view from the 11th floor. Before we start our meal we are dressed up in the garments of the king and queen. They then sit us down on a couple of thrones and give us a glass of Vietnamese rice spirit. Words do this no justice, photo below tells you far more. Very cheesy but great fun, we are not sure why we are the only guests in the restaurant.
The next day we tour the palace, again we have the opportunity to dress up, naturally we take it, as do a few of our travel companions. Again hilarious but this time no airconditioning. We pose for a few photos then get the layers of clothing straight off.
The palace is kinda cool, but we're a bit surprised to learn it's more recent than our first house....mid 19th century. In all of Nguyen's info we don't touch on the subject of how the communist government feels about the glorying in royal history, so we ask some questions and yes, in history lessons, Vietnamese kids are certainly told all about the degenerate extravagances of monarch despots. However, it brings the tourists so gets very much glossed over for visitors.
Having not visited a pagoda or temple for maybe twelve hours, off we head to the Thien Mu pagoda. Surprise surprise, it's hot. Our crew are getting savvier at slinking around in the shade, so every time Nguyen explains things to us the group gravitates to trees, building shadows.....
It was far cooler out on the river, where we take a short cruise on a dragon boat. Being descended from a riverboat captain, it was only right that Tracey should take a turn at the wheel.
Lunch was at a "nunnery", and was probably the most polarising meal of the trip. It was all vegetarian, which may have put some hardened Westerrn carnivores off. It was also hot (nothing new there), and some of the crew thought there was an unpleasant smell (fermented tofu) and didn't eat at all. Much of the leftover food was sent to our end of the table, as hardened travellers who will happily eat Epoisses (the cheese that smells so bad it is banned on the Paris Metro). Some of the food was excellent - really fresh, crispy salad, a good hot pot (sadly, said hot pot was on our table and made things even hotter). A trip out the back to the "happy room" revealed a pretty relaxed approach to kitchen hygiene...but we suspect the only difference between this place and others we've been eating at is that we actually saw the food prep here.
Last stop for the day was the Kings Tomb, which took us longer to get to than many of us wanted to spend there. By this time we'd seen so many temples and palaces (we think it was six palaces for the whole trip (including Thailand and Cambodia) that we'd become jaded, maybe the 45 degrees (feels like 50) took a toll as well. A bit of a dampener was that the king isn't actually in the tomb after all, but is buried somewhere so secret that the workers involved were all executed to preserve the secret. Seriously?
Dinner was a quick & easy fluffy pork bun from the street, lots more meat than we encounter at yum cha, with a lotus seed at the centre. Most agreeable.
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