Hue and Onwards

We were a little disappointed with our guided motorcycle tour.  The guy was more of a driver than a guide.  We had hoped to have him with us at the sites so we could get more information about each place but he just gave us a little spiel and sent us on our way.  We felt like we could have done a similar tour on our own so we'll probably stick to doing it ourselves. Since it wasn't a great experience we decided against motorcycling to Hoi An especially since we already had tickets.  I guess we know to ask more questions in the future so we can fully understand what we are paying for.

Oct 22 – Bike tour around Hue

We were picked up at the hotel at 8:30 this morning. The first stop on the tour was the Temple of Princess Huyen Tran and her father King Tran Nhan Tong. To get there we drove through a massive cemetery. It was quite beautiful and interesting to see the similarities and difference to the cemeteries back home. Some grave markers were quite colourful and ornate. We arrived at the temple and were told we had about 50min. Our guide just hung out while we went in, so he really wasn't much of a guide. It was a beautiful set of temples. We could have spent a bit longer there. There was a small mountain to climb and a bell at the top that Beau rang. There was next to no one there, possibly because it was fairly early. From there we went to a war memorial where there were many soldiers buried. We didn't spend very long here because we needed to get to a Buddhist temple to see their daily prayer ceremony. Three times a day the Buddhist monks prey with chanting and music, each time for about half an hour. We arrived in time to see the last 10 minutes of the prayer and it was quite interesting. We spent a little time looking around the temple and the were on our way again. We stopped at a roadside stand that was selling souvenir crap but we were shown how they make incense, which they burn everywhere, and the conical shaped bamboo hats, here they put poems in the hat so you can see them when you hold the hat to the light, so I guess it was okay. Next we went to a hill top that had some American bunkers on it. We did a little off roading to get up to the top. There was a pretty good view of the Perfume River, which wasn't the prettiest of colours. There wasn't all that much to see of the bunkers besides some cylindrical concrete sticking a couple of feet above the ground. Next we went to the Tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. The tomb originally had 50 buildings but many of which have succumbed to the passage of time, although the tomb is only 100 years old. It was very nice in a mossy sort of way. Our guide asked us if we wanted to stop for lunch, there were a bunch of little restaurants outside of the tomb but they all sold the same thing at inflated prices. We told he we wanted local food so we hopped back on the bikes. Our next stop was an arena used to fight elephants and tigers. The elephants always won because the tigers were declawed and detoothed. The elephant represented the emperors power so obvious it had to win. We headed back into the city where we did get local food. The guide took us down an alley to a restaurant where there were a bunch of Vietnamese eating. I finally got my vermicelli bowl that I have been dying to have it's called Banh Thit Nurong we also had some delicious fresh spring rolls. Our last stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda. Another pretty site. We were a bit disappointed with our tour. We assumed that our guide would come into the sites with us and tell us about the places. Besides finding us really good food we probably would have been fine on our own. We did talk him into let us keep the bike for the rest of the day but we had to change bikes. We then went to into the citadel which is the old walled city and into the Forbidden Purple Palace, the former home of the emperor. The palace is slowly being restored so it was interesting to see the difference between how it did look and how it looks now. The grounds were beautiful as was the architecture. We cruised around Hoi An a bit then headed back to the hotel. We stopped off at the Backpackers hostel again for 2-4-1 beers and ran into a couple, Mark and Christina, who were our dorm mates in Hanoi. We had dinner with them at another restaurant our guide had suggested, also where we returned the bike. The food was quite good too. We were all on the bus to Hoi An (Beau and I decided against motorcycles since we already had the ticket and we weren't impressed with dude) so we decided to go out. We went to a bar that was handing out fliers for 2-4-1 drinks. Beau and Mark played some pool with some locals and Christina and I got to talking with a Vietnamese girl that works at the bar. We had a really fun night dancing and drinking.

Beau ringing the bell for good luck

The monks praying

The Perfume River

Emperor Tu Duc's Tomb

Thein Mu Pagoda

The Forbidden Purple Palace

Oct 23 – On to Hoi An

We were leaving for Hoi An today so we packed up our stuff and headed out for breakfast. After eating we went to the Backpackers hostel because that's where we got the bus from. We had about an hour or two to kill before the bus but I got to Skype with Elaine!! We got on our bus but it waited around for a bit before we left. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to Hoi An. Fairly scenic but I can't imagine doing it on a motorcycle now with how crazy the traffic is here! We arrived at the bus station and of course there were people saying come to my hotel. We caught a ride to a hotel which was supposedly in the city centre, it was more like the edge of the city centre. It was okay but we thought we'd keep looking. We found a reasonable and clean hotel and set off for dinner. The restaurant had reasonably priced meals and cheap draught beer. Some of the local food here is crispy wantons with meat and vegetables in a pineapple glaze. It's very good, like nachos but better. We walked around Hoi An. It very pretty at night with little paper boats with candles floating down the river. Most places are little up with colourful lanterns. So far I really like the feel of Hoi An. There are also tailor shops everywhere!! I'm definitely going to have to exercise some restraint!