So far on this journey I have spent plenty of quality time on planes, trains and motorbikes - but not much thus far on buses. Then the fates stepped in, and more than corrected that in the last two days.
Upon arriving in Hue on Wednesday, I found a tour company recommended in the Rough Guide to see what I should see while in Hue. I'm not a fan of big group tours, but since I only had one full day there (Thursday), I booked a whirlwind, see-it-all-in-a-day bus tour. It cost a whopping US $7, including lunch. Gotta love the value of the dollar in Vietnam.
In the morning we saw three tombs of former Vietnamese kings, two of which were very peaceful and park-like,
and the other quite opulent and ornate - no surprise, since that one was for the gay king. I especially liked the painted ceiling, which made it worth climbing more than 120 stairs to get there.




As always, there were entertaining signs, this time revealing an apparent distaste for lying. I'm trying to imagine who goes to the trouble to go to visit these tombs (which are pretty far outside of town), then decides they'd like to nap on top of them.
Next we visited a village where handicapped people make incense and
conical hats. Both were interesting, but I was especially fascinated by the incense, which it turns out is rolled from a large lump of scented clay-like substance, which is not at all how I would have imagined it.
The afternoon was consumed with a trip to the old Imperial City, where the kings of the former monarchy used to live. Most of it was destroyed during the French and American wars, but they are in
the process of rebuilding it, and it should be done in about 13 years (be sure and mark your calendars). I was excited to find out there were elephants there, but opted not to take a ride on one, since upon closer inspection, they didn't seem very happy.
We finished off the day with a visit to one of the more
dramatic of Hue's many pagodas. I was amused to spy a herd of cows trotting down the city street in front of the pagoda, competing with motorbikes and cars.
As I write this, I'm getting more quality bus time, in the form of a five-hour trip to Hoi An, where I will spend the next two nights. Today I woke up to pouring rain, which is making it less-than-appealing to get off the bus at the various viewpoint stops. There are two little Vietnamese boys who are entertaining me though. They are fascinated with my laptop and headphones, and are now rocking out to Beck, which I'm finding quite amusing.
Last but not least, is it just me, or all these dolls a bit disturbing?
More photos at http://babas.typepad.com/photos/my_gap_year_2/index.html.
Those dolls are whack. I'm gonna have nightmares.
Posted by: Scott | January 05, 2007 at 04:22 PM
I'm with Scott on the doll thing. They're like something out of a bad horror movie.
Posted by: Jan | January 05, 2007 at 10:04 PM
GI Chucky? Better check your luggage to make sure one of those dolls didn't hitch a ride
Posted by: Karen | January 09, 2007 at 04:25 PM