Karen (my room mate) and I had all good intensions of spending a few hours on Sunday morning doing something educational and cultural, so we headed to the Revolutionary Museum, which gives an insight into Vietnam's long struggle for independence against the French, the Americans and various other local tyrants. We arrived just after 11am, only to discover that the museum shuts for lunch at 11.45am. We raced around, believing that we had a sufficient amount of time to cover enough of the exhibits, but at around 11.25am we were thrown out of the building, as the staff wanted to have their lunch. Obviously food is more important than keeping the customers happy!
Luckily a lot of the exhibits were similar to what we had seen in the Hanoi Hilton prison and the Ho Chi Minh Museum, so we did not feel so guilty for cutting short our museum visit. As we were coming to the end of the Tet holiday period, the lure of seeing a few more shops open was far too great. We bought ourselves some lovely bamboo rice bowls, plates and serving bowls, which I have never seen before and wethen went straight to the post office to have it all boxed up ready to be shipped back home. We are now well acquainted with the inns and outs of the Vietnamese postal system, as we were there for over an hour but I have no idea why it took so long (probably because the woman behind the counter was sick of the sight of us and preferred to serve other people instead of us or to count the daily takings which she kept in a draw. This happens everywhere in Vietnam. Shopkeepers or stall holders keep their money in an unlocked draw or a tin box. Robberies must not be common). Anyway, afterwards we wandered why we had put ourselves through the trauma of doing so, as whilst it cost 22 pounds to buy the stuff, it cost 28 pounds to send it all back (it would have been half the price to send it by sea but I don't think I could have waited the 3 to 6 months it would have taken to arrive back in the UK). After all, the whole point of buying the bowls and plates was for my dinner parties to show off my new Thai cooking skills. Fingers crossed it all arrivs, as I don't fancy having to deal with the Vietnamese Post Office to claim damages.
We caught the 7pm overnight train to Hue, which would take 13 hours. There isn't much to do on these train journeys but luckily I had my DVD and a large collection of DVDs which I had acquired in Hanoi to keep us occupied. We decided to watch The Killing Fields, which I had never seen before, to give us a much better perspective on Cambodia's history when we go there in a few days. I don't, however, think that that film will prepare us for the sights we will see there.
We arrived in Hue on Monday 11th February, went straight to our hotel and then embarked on a motobike tour of the city. Hue was the capital of Vietnam from 1744 when the Nguyen lords controlled all of southern Vietnam from the city. The dynasty of the Nguyen family lasted from 1802 when Nguyen Anh defeated rebels to control the city until 1945, when the last emperor abdicated to an envoy sent by Ho Chi Minh. The city was severely damaged in the 1968 Tet offensive during the Vietnam war when house-to-house fighting lasted for weeks.
My driver was a bit of a speed demon and I don't think he liked being near the back, so he would reve up the engine and we would overtake everyone else. I held on for dear life. It was an action packed day. We went through rural villages past rice paddy fields (see photos). We visited The Imperial Citadel, which sits on the northern banks of the Perfume River (see photo). Construction started in 1804 and took 28 years to complete and it was the royal residence of the kings of Vietnam. During the Indochina and Vietnam wars, many of the the original buildings were destroyed and the area is currently under reconstruction.
We also headed to the Tu Duc Tomb. Tu Duc (1829 to 1883) was independent Vietnam's last emperor (1847 to 1883). He served as the fourth of the thirteen Nguyen Dynasty's emperors and had about 140 wives and countless concubines. He did not have any children, as he was sterile. One would imagine that his body is buried under the giant mausoleum on the site but when the French tried to exhume the body to steal the treasure buried with him, they discovered that the coffin was empty! Apparently the body is buried elsewhere but no one knows where, as the gravediggers were beheaded after the job was done and the last remaining person who knew where the burial site was, was poisoned. What a pleasant way to meet your maker.
We had a short boat ride on the Perfume River and visited one of the city's many pagodas (see photo). Lunch was a delicious vegetarian meal in a nunnery (see photo) - this was the best Vietnamese food we have had so far. We also saw how incense sticks are made (see photo - the woman rolls a type of cinammon paste onto the different coloured incense sticks). What really made the trip for us was Tam, our guide who spoke excellent English but who had somehow picked up all the English colloquialisms and a sense of humour to go with it. He showed us some of his Tai Chi moves and had us in fits of laughter. He definitely deserved his tip. When he asked me about Vernon, I told him he was working hard at home. His response was that I was a very clever girl, as a boyfriend at home gave you many more possibilities - what I meant by that I don't really know!
Luckily a lot of the exhibits were similar to what we had seen in the Hanoi Hilton prison and the Ho Chi Minh Museum, so we did not feel so guilty for cutting short our museum visit. As we were coming to the end of the Tet holiday period, the lure of seeing a few more shops open was far too great. We bought ourselves some lovely bamboo rice bowls, plates and serving bowls, which I have never seen before and wethen went straight to the post office to have it all boxed up ready to be shipped back home. We are now well acquainted with the inns and outs of the Vietnamese postal system, as we were there for over an hour but I have no idea why it took so long (probably because the woman behind the counter was sick of the sight of us and preferred to serve other people instead of us or to count the daily takings which she kept in a draw. This happens everywhere in Vietnam. Shopkeepers or stall holders keep their money in an unlocked draw or a tin box. Robberies must not be common). Anyway, afterwards we wandered why we had put ourselves through the trauma of doing so, as whilst it cost 22 pounds to buy the stuff, it cost 28 pounds to send it all back (it would have been half the price to send it by sea but I don't think I could have waited the 3 to 6 months it would have taken to arrive back in the UK). After all, the whole point of buying the bowls and plates was for my dinner parties to show off my new Thai cooking skills. Fingers crossed it all arrivs, as I don't fancy having to deal with the Vietnamese Post Office to claim damages.
We caught the 7pm overnight train to Hue, which would take 13 hours. There isn't much to do on these train journeys but luckily I had my DVD and a large collection of DVDs which I had acquired in Hanoi to keep us occupied. We decided to watch The Killing Fields, which I had never seen before, to give us a much better perspective on Cambodia's history when we go there in a few days. I don't, however, think that that film will prepare us for the sights we will see there.
We arrived in Hue on Monday 11th February, went straight to our hotel and then embarked on a motobike tour of the city. Hue was the capital of Vietnam from 1744 when the Nguyen lords controlled all of southern Vietnam from the city. The dynasty of the Nguyen family lasted from 1802 when Nguyen Anh defeated rebels to control the city until 1945, when the last emperor abdicated to an envoy sent by Ho Chi Minh. The city was severely damaged in the 1968 Tet offensive during the Vietnam war when house-to-house fighting lasted for weeks.
My driver was a bit of a speed demon and I don't think he liked being near the back, so he would reve up the engine and we would overtake everyone else. I held on for dear life. It was an action packed day. We went through rural villages past rice paddy fields (see photos). We visited The Imperial Citadel, which sits on the northern banks of the Perfume River (see photo). Construction started in 1804 and took 28 years to complete and it was the royal residence of the kings of Vietnam. During the Indochina and Vietnam wars, many of the the original buildings were destroyed and the area is currently under reconstruction.
We also headed to the Tu Duc Tomb. Tu Duc (1829 to 1883) was independent Vietnam's last emperor (1847 to 1883). He served as the fourth of the thirteen Nguyen Dynasty's emperors and had about 140 wives and countless concubines. He did not have any children, as he was sterile. One would imagine that his body is buried under the giant mausoleum on the site but when the French tried to exhume the body to steal the treasure buried with him, they discovered that the coffin was empty! Apparently the body is buried elsewhere but no one knows where, as the gravediggers were beheaded after the job was done and the last remaining person who knew where the burial site was, was poisoned. What a pleasant way to meet your maker.
We had a short boat ride on the Perfume River and visited one of the city's many pagodas (see photo). Lunch was a delicious vegetarian meal in a nunnery (see photo) - this was the best Vietnamese food we have had so far. We also saw how incense sticks are made (see photo - the woman rolls a type of cinammon paste onto the different coloured incense sticks). What really made the trip for us was Tam, our guide who spoke excellent English but who had somehow picked up all the English colloquialisms and a sense of humour to go with it. He showed us some of his Tai Chi moves and had us in fits of laughter. He definitely deserved his tip. When he asked me about Vernon, I told him he was working hard at home. His response was that I was a very clever girl, as a boyfriend at home gave you many more possibilities - what I meant by that I don't really know!
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