Easy Rider (Part 1)

So instead of the DMZ tour we decided to cruise around town with guides on motorbikes. We each have our own driver and the day is spent being driven around on the back of a bike (without helmets I hate to add - no one wears helmets here) to different historical sites around Hue.



Our first stop was the Thanh Toan Bridge, a Japanese-styled bridge that we're told is used mostly by local villagers to take naps throughout the day. The drive there was the best part - through small villages, rice patties, and lots of tight, windy roads.



Next was the Thien Mu Pagoda. I think this might be the most beautiful place I've seen in Vietnam to date - it is hands down the quietest place I've been in Vietnam. This pagoda is also a working monastery and we arrived just in time for morning meditation and prayers. The youngest monks, or monks-in-training, I'm not sure, seem to wear white robes while others wear the traditional saffron robes. Their ability to pray and meditate while everyone around them is taking pictures is rather remarkable. As you can see from one of the pictures below, some folks just get right in there and snap away.













Next - the incense stand. At this small roadside stand there was a woman making incense. She sits at a small school desk and she works what looks like a big piece of brown bread dough. To be honest, it really looks like a huge turd - imagine elephant family. She cuts a bit off the turd, adds some scent - in this case cinnamon - and then rolls it on a stick, sort of like rolling out a pie crust. The sticks are then left out to dry along side of the road. I'll never look at incense the same way again. While hanging out at the stand Michael was getting a bit worried because I kept saying in my not so soft voice, "doesn't that look like a big turd?" This lead to a discussion of whether "turd" was an internationally recognized word, like McDonalds or Coca Cola.





The Tomb of Tu Duc was next. These folks really have a nice take on the whole tomb thing. Set on a pretty big chunk of land surrounded by big pine and frangipani trees, the grounds are absolutely stunning. We read that the enormous expense and slave labor needed to build the tomb from 1864 to 1867 resulted in an attempted coup in 1866. Another interesting fact - Tu Duc, who had the longest reign of any Nguyen monarch(from 1848-1883) had 103 wives and more concubines but no children. It is thought that he may have become sterile after a bout of smallpox.



Right at the entrance there is a dumpy temple (as compared to the others) which is dedicated to his "minor wives." Clearly it paid to work your way up the wife ladder least you be remembered in a not very attractive small temple with no view of the lily pond.



The Christmas Munchkin (from Michael's niece Alice) also made the journey with us to the Tu Duc Tomb.





Our guides took us to a very local joint for lunch. No menus, no foreigners (ferang), no English spoken. We had seafood hot pot which had some crazy pieces of fish floating around. In Asia, the shrimp come fully loaded - head, legs, shells - so they're always looking at you. The hot pot also included something I took to calling the "blood pattie." From a distance it looked like chocolate (wishful thinking) but closer up it had the consistency of tofu but was made of animal blood. Even though Michael had tried this before (in California of all places) and didn't like it, he was game and a good guest and tried some more. I plead upset stomach and just ate the broth and had an ice cream cone later in the day.

Most of the afternoon was spent at the Imperial Enclosure within the Citadel. As might be expected in anything called the Imperial Enclosure, there were many amazing palaces, temples, etc. A large part of the Enclosure was bombed during the war so there are many bits where you have to imagine what used to be there. Upon entering I saw this elephant just wandering across the lawn. I saw a few more during our time there, just chilling and eating grass.