Historic Hue

What a nice, quiet time we had in Hue. In case I didnt explain, I have been hanging out with my friend Dave, who I met in Saigon. We re-met up in Hoi An and are traveling together for a bit. He is Australian. We took a bus to Hue and stayed in a hotel in a cute little side street. We spent the first day seeing all the historic stuff. Hue was the capital in the Imperial days when Vietnam had kings. The main old city is walled and there is a massive compound, also walled, within. The compound is where the king used to live and is partly in shambles now but still some buildings and beautiful land.

That night some guy stopped us and wanted to have a beer with him and his family and we did that. Unfortunately, after being semi-ripped off in the past, its hard to truly trust people. He wanted us to have beers again at his house but we made up plans. He is a teacher and just wanted to practice english, etc.

Second day in Hue we booked a motorbike tour through the countryside which was, as always, beautiful and enchanting. We stopped off at some famous king's tombs (which are also huge compounds with buildings and land) and temples and pagodas. The tour company was through a cute family run restaurant where I ordered cereal for breakfast one day - an unual and exciting menu item!

That night we went out with some Aussie girls to "Why Not Bar." One girl met this Thai businss guy who was really cool and he ended guiding us to a nice restaurant where we all had dinner. One delicious dish we had was "bo la lot" which is meat patty things with herbs wrapped in a lot leaf. After that, back to the bar where met an English couple traveling for 6 months (how cool!). They were also on our flight today to Hanoi so we will prob hang out with them here.

heading back to hotel via rickshaw

Hanoi, where we arrived today, is chilly! I bought a thicker coat (20 bucks...) and some gloves. In a few days, we want to do this trip out to the "minority" hill tribe community (Sapa) but its even colder there....30s/40s. Ich. But I think it will be worth it.

By the way, why does the US still use imperial measurements? We say "foot" and "pound" and it sounds so archaic to the rest of the world...just a funny thing. Suprisingly makes it somewhat hard to figure out distance, weight, temperature. It's an extra handicap in a country that speaks a different language :)

The English couple, as part of their 6 month trip, did a roadtrip across the US. They loved it. It's cool to hear people chatting about wanting to travel in the US or having enjoyed a trip to the US, I guess because I didnt realize that people think of US as a backpacker-type destination, but rather to see one or two places (NY, etc). Rock on!

Tomorrow is TET! Lunar New Year. Should be awesome here. Families have been gearing up - they buy kumquat trees for their houses and burn these papers in cans outside as offerings. It's almost permenantly smokey wherever you go. And before lunch they put out all their food on a table outside with incense as an offering before they eat. They also spruce up the town, do repainting and repairing and are supppsed to trim the graves of their loved ones. I'm sure I'm not giving the customs their due explanation, but those are some of the things I have been told or seen. I think tomorrow will have fireworks and a celebration outside. I'll let you know!