Hue, Vietnam

Entrance gate at the Citadel.
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So, at this point, remember, Laurie and I have been to Bangkok, Hanoi, and Halong Bay. Not too shabby, right? But, then again, that's only three cities, and we're pretty aggressive travelers, and we've been here for over a week. We were told, by and large, before leaving that it would be really easy to book domestic Vietnam flights from one city to another, that we could just bounce around, at our whim, whenever we wanted. This didn't necessarily prove to be true. When our hotel in Hanoi booked our domestic flights, not all the flight times were available. So, here is what happened next.

As we go through the tomb, I'm snapping photos like a madman, telling Laurie, 'QUIT LOOKING AT STUFF, WE DON'T HAVE TIME! RUN!!! RUN!!!'

Vietnamese woman with conical hat and shoulder pole.
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Wednesday morning. 3:30am. The alarm goes off. We've got to be dressed and ready to go at 4:00am, where our car takes us to the airport for a 5:40am flight to Hue. As our cab took us through Hanoi to the airport, and we said a very sad goodbye to Hanoi, we were groggy to be sure, but we were energized as we drove through what appeared to be a market, at 4:00am!, in the pitch-black, with people shopping, and cooking, and talking, and walking, and going, and everything.

We arrived in Hue and headed to our hotel, which was fine. The room wasn't ready yet, but we were just going to have breakfast. So, we had woken up in Hanoi, driven to the airport, waited for our flight, boarded the plane, flew to Hanoi, (not us, the plane flew, we were just inside. Why do people say get "on the plane?" Screw that, I'm getting in the plane! - points for identifying that ...), landed, got our luggage, found a cab, drove to the airport, checked in, and went back downstairs to the lobby, had breakfast, (toast, coffee, a fried egg), booked a boat tour for the next day, (more to come on that soon), and headed off on foot, for a 30 minute walk, to the Citadel: Imperial City.

In the Citadel (Imperial City). This used to be a glorious gate to a temple in the Citadel. Hue sustained heavy bombing damage in the American War, and this temple is gone. The gate was heavily damaged.
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It was 8am. Now Hanoi is hot. It's humid, the temperature is high, but while we were there, the sun wasn't beating down on us. All of that changed in Hue. Not only was it a little hotter than Hanoi, not only was it a little bit more humid, but the sun is relentlessly beating down on us. On the journey over, Laurie had to stop to use a public restroom. Have you ever used a public restroom in a small town in Asia? Have you ever looked into the face of evil and lived to tell the tale? Well, that's what we were faced with. I sat on a park bench and waited. Laurie had a frightening experience. Just remember, it was a squat toilet. So, we leave, and as we're walking along to our destination and Laurie is telling about her horrorific experience, I realize that I'm getting bit all over on the legs from little ants, or something, that made their way up my pant legs while I was sitting on the bench. Now, remember that this is ultimately part of the charm. I know that it sounds rough, but it's really more funny than anything else.

Citadel Library
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The Imperial City (Citadel) is truly impressive. It's huge. Several smaller temples are contained within it, and it can easily take somebody about 4 hours to visit and see everything. We'll have some great pictures to share when we're home. It was hot though, and we were exhausted, so it got a little rough.

Hue is a smaller town, it's not so much a bustling city as Hanoi or Saigon are, so it was quaint, with not much to do in the evening. We had dinner, relaxed, and moved on to the next day.

Fishing life in Hue.
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Boat tour!

It's the next day, it's early, and weren't not totally recovered from the previous day's exhaustion, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. The boat tour was going to be from 8-4pm, with a tour guide, lunch, (we had to pack our own though, being vegetarians), and we would visit: the floating village, Hue garden houses, two pagodas, three tombs, and a incense/conical hat making village. Hue is well known for these elaborate and ornate tombs that were built for some of the emperors. They don't date back tremendously far, some are about 200 years old, but they're terribly impressive. It was going to be a real treat.

Water lilly pond near entrance at Tu Duc Tomb.
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8:00am. We walk to the port, (a few blocks), and board the boat. 8:30am. We're just sitting there, hanging out. Laurie and I are taking bets as to what time we'll take off. 8:45am. We take off.

Our guide joins us. Charming and sweet young man that begins everything with a bellowing and melodic, "Ladies and Gentlemen," (with a deep accent, of course).

We cruise along the Perfume River, (quite enchanting), and come upon the floating villages whereupon several other boat guests, (there were about 25 or so of us on the boat tour), get up and take pictures. It was cool. Sure. You'll see pictures. You'll like it. I promise. I wouldn't lie to you. We don't really stop anywhere, we just float around. We look. We feel a little weird that we're a boat full of people gawking at and taking pictures of people as they live their daily lives. It's a little awkward and although it's really a magnificent place, because of this feeling, we're not altogether too saddened as the boat journeys to our next destination.

Statues in Khai Dinh Tomb.
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I'm not really ever sure what happened with the Hue Garden Houses, because about 30 minutes of sailing later, we hear, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now at the _________ Pagoda. This pagoda blah blah blah (really interesting stuff about the Pagoda, although we couldn't understand when he said the name because he speaks Vietnamese, and these words are easy for him, and we don't and therefore the words and names are harder for us, but no matter ...). We will have 35 minutes at this Pagoda. My watch reads 10:40, so please return to the boat at 11:15am. Thank you."

Along Perfume River.
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Okay, cool. We look around the Pagoda. The guide goes with us and describes various things. It's really pretty, although we wish we had a little bit more time.

We board the boat again. The engines start but we don't go anywhere. We sit there for 20 minutes. Finally some of the boat's staff, (it is a small boat remember), board with some groceries. I think this is where lunch supplies are coming from. We sail around.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now arriving at _______ Tomb. We will have to board motorcycles, (scooters), because the tomb is very far. We will have one hour at this tomb. My watch reads 11:50am, so please be back at 12:50pm. Thank you."

Khai Dinh Tomb
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Oh. One hour. Okay, well this must be a smaller tomb. See, this tombs are incredibly ornate. They're huge, expansive complexes with pagodas inside, the tomb itself, lush gardens and ponds, gazebo-like dealy-o's. But, alright.

It's a bit of a hike up the mountain to where the Vespa-style scooters are. (Whenever I talk about scooters/motos, picture Vespas, Hondas, etc.). So, we hike. 5 minutes. Now some people have trips that includes the price of the moto escorts, some don't. Some think that they have trips that include it, and the tour guide may disagree. There was some discussion amongst these people. Also, remember, we're on dirt roads mainly. There are no helmets. We had paid for ours before, so I hop on the back of mine. No helmet. Hold on! Laurie jumps on the back of hers, begging the man to go slowly. I should have done the same.

DMZ Bar.
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Well, we survive the 3 minute journey on the moto. It was actually a little fun, and a little scary. I didn't know if my driver ever had a 200 lb. man on the back of his before. I guess he probably has when you think about it. Then we had to wait in line for entrance tickets. We waited. And waited. We got our tickets and entered. We had exactly 40 minutes to see the tomb AND to get back. Uh-oh.

These tombs are magnificent, and truly, they're the reason that we went to Hue. The Imperial City was also fantastic, but these tombs are so unique. These emperors had the most amazing tombs built. The ponds are littered with water lillies standing proudly out of the water, flushing the pond with vibrant color. The roofs of the buildings are gloriously decorated with ornate dragon carvings. The railings on the steps leading up anywhere are generally these incredibly detailed dragons descending. We walked, and looked, and took pictures, (and wiped sweat from our brows), and were in absolute awe. We were late. We had seen maybe 60-70% of the complex, and we had to jam. Oh man. It was so frustrating. We found some other travelers from the trip. We found Ronaldhino. Ronaldhino is a Spanish man, probably in his 40s, traveling with his wife. He is outgoing, and energetic, (also a chain-smoker!), enthusiastic, kind, enjoyable, jolly, and just a great guy. (We call him Ronaldhino because he was wearing a Ronaldhino jersey). He is the kind of guy that you invite to a party, and the party takes care of itself. He was engaging everybody that he met with, on the boat or off. So, we found him. We asked each other how late we were, although we all probably knew. Another Chinese group of girls from our trip rolled up and asked the same of us. Laurie and I expressed how frustrating it was to not see everything. Ronaldhino: "Who cares! No stress! The boat will not leave without us! Whatever. We get back when we get back!" We like Ronaldhino.

Night falls on the Perfume River in Hue.
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We take motos back. The moto guys stop at a shop en route back. Why? The shops sell incense. These shops like when they bring tourists. Laurie buys incense as incentive for her driver to like, and to therefore be cautious and slow on the roads. 15,000 dong, ( < $1). Seems like money well spent to us. We have some cheap incense now.

As we walk back to the boat, our tour guide scolds us, (in a oddly friendly way), about being late. We feel bad. Ronaldhino makes him laugh. All is well. The boat leaves.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. We are now at ________ Pagoda. You will have 20 minutes at this Pagoda. The time is currently -" Oh shit! RUN! We run. Some forsake this Pagoda because it is relatively small, we guess, and we have to pay the entrance fee, and we only get 20 minutes, and we have to wait in line for tickets anyway ... But, we go. It was small. It was pretty I guess. I mean, it was really tiny.

Laurie here: Ok, so it's at this point that I need to use the "restroom". Did we tell you how hot it is here? Well, because of that, Adam and I are going through 7-8 1.5 liters of water a day (yes, those numbers are correct!). Mostly, we are sweating this all out so thankfully we have only had to use the public "restrooms" rarely. But, I had to go. So, with only the thought of getting in and out as quickly as possible, I enter. I quickly survey all of the surrounding creepy crawly things on the ground, floor, and ceiling - keeping an eye out so they don't come too dangerously close. I go and quickly turn around and flush the toilet. It's at this point that several things go through my head, milliseconds apart: hmm, the toilet doesn't seem to be flushing; hmm, the lever didn't seem to give me too much resistance when I flushed it and the texture felt a little odd; then - OH MY GOD, I just mistook the head of a large lizard sticking out of the top of the toilet as the lever! Before I could stop it, I let out a girly shriek and ran out of there. Without flushing the toilet.

Adam back: We board the boat. Shoes off now, as mats have been stretched across the floor with place-settings for lunch. It's family-style. Laurie and I brought these sandwiches, (which were awful by the way, but it's all we had). We brought Pringles. (Asia loves Pringles). We brought a banana and cliff bars. It probably looked odd to many that we were eating this. It probably was odd. We explained it to some.

We arrived at the next destination. "Ladies and Gentlemen. We are now at _________ Tomb. You will have 40 minutes at this tomb. The time is currently -"

DUDE! 40 minutes. At this point, it was just plain funny. But hey, that's just the way it goes some times. The tour group is obviously into getting you to as many cites as possible, (it looks good for the package to include a lot of things), and we buy the entrance tickets for the cites, so more money for them. As we go through the tomb, I'm snapping photos like a madman, telling Laurie, "QUIT LOOKING AT STUFF, WE DON'T HAVE TIME! RUN!!! RUN!!!" It makes us laugh. Despite the absurdity of the situation, we're truly having fun.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. We are now at _________ Tomb. You will have 30 minutes -" This is the best tomb. We're going to show you some pictures of this tomb. It's so stunning. It's really unique too. The photos will be added to the blog at a later time, but you'll have to see them to know. At this point, nobody cares about time. The pack mentality has just set in. We all basically just watch for each other at the tombs. We basically rove as a large group, (with small, little independant groups walking around, and the larger group in the same general area), and we all look at the cite relatively quickly, but with some degree of leisure, and just leave when we feel good and ready. This tomb, by the way, wasn't included in the original itinerary, but we we MUCH rather see this than the village that makes hats and incense.

We got back to port at 5:20pm. Ha! We were almost an hour and a half late. We had lunch, but with no place to stay, (we're flying out that night to Saigon, so had therefore checked out of our hotel), we have no way of freshening up before we board our flight. It's been a hot day, I'm certain that we smell, and that's just the way it is sometimes.

After dinner at a fanastic vegetarian restaurant that serves mockmeats, (although we've learned that nobody does mock meat as well as San Francisco), we cruise along the streets. We happen upon DMZ Bar. We MUST go.

DMZ bar is a highlight of our trip. There are some locals, but lots of westerners. There's a pool table, and some tourists are playing against the staff. So awesome. There's lizards running around on every lighted surface, (probably in search of bugs we suppose), the jukebox is blasting everything from Creedance, Metallica, Black Eyed Peas, and a random Vietnamese acoustic song). We're sipping beers and we realize, we know, that these are the moments we love. The cites are beautiful and amazing and will always be fantastic, you simply must experience them, but evenings on our trip is where the bread is buttered. It's when we truly just sit back, watch the daily life, and enjoy our time. We will always marvel at glorious pagodas, and rivers, and architecture and the like. It's all so unique. But when the day is done, you're exhausted from it, you've walked off 10-20 miles during the day in extreme temperatures, with little to eat and little rest the night before, you bask in the feeling. I wish I could describe it for everybody. I'm sure many who travel know that feeling, and for those that don't get to travel, I'm sure that you know the feeling from other great moments in life. It's what it's all about. It's why we do it. We sat there looking at each other, realizing how far we've traveled and how long our days have been. How hard the pillows are, the beds made of brick themselves, and we're sipping great beer, truly, (Hue Beer, for in every city we travel to, we have the namesake beer), and we're singing "Fortunate Son" at the top of our lungs, and we're just loving life.

Unfortunately, it's time to go. Our 37 hours in Hue are up and we hop in a taxi. We get to the ticket counter at the airport and who's next to us? Ronaldhino. We chat. He's off to Hanoi, we're off to Saigon. "Have a great trip! Mucho gusto!," we say.

Our flights delayed. We're supposed to take off at 9:40pm. We wait for an announcement. None. Then, it's 9:50pm and we're boarding. We get on the plane. We take off about 35 minutes late. No big deal. We're exhausted. Regardless of the travel schedule, it's 2 hours past our usual bedtime! It's a short flight, and we half sleep on the way over. I'm out until the beverage carts smacks me to alertness. The plane touches down and as it does, I turn to Laurie and say, "You know, yesterday we were in Hanoi." And there you have it.