Hue

After spending 5 days in Hanoi, we flew south to Hue, which is in Central Vietnam.  Hue is the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, so it has alot of historical sites.  We originally planned to stay for 3 days, but had to extend a day due to an attack of gastrointestinal issues.

Since the sights in Hue are spread apart, we decided to do a motorbike tour.  

Basically, you hire a tour guide with a motorbike and he takes you around the country side to visit a few sights around Hue.  Here we are with our guides:

       

Mr Ty (think Mr. T of the A-Team)                             Mr. Hai (as in hi, hello)

It was the first time Andy and I rode on motorcycles, and I have to say, it was definitely the way to go.  With a motorbike, you can go on the little dirt country roads and see parts of the country that would be difficult to reach in a car.  

Rice farmer floating through the rice paddies

Covered bridge

Covered bridge from afar

After visiting the bridge and a little agricultural museum in the village, we drove to a Buddhist temple/monastery that was hidden in the woods.

Entrance to the temple


Monks praying.  Note the awesome hair style on the junior monk in the back.
Apparently hair (or the lack of hair) indicates seniority.


Peaceful pond and bridge in the monastery

Next we drove to the incense and conical hat making "village".  Really, it was a bunch of stores on the side of the road. They were making incense and let me have a try.

Here I am, getting a lesson in making incense



Andy joining in the tea party

Continuing along, we rode to the Tu Duc Mausoleum.  Around Hue, there are about 13 mausoleums of the former emperors of Vietnam.  The largest and most famous is that of Tu Duc.   He had 103 wives who are all buried on the grounds along with him.

      

After finishing up there, we grabbed a quick bowl of pho and rode to the Forbidden Purple City.  It's where the emperor ruled from.  Unfortunately, many of the buildings were demolished by warfare.  It's only about 200 years old, but seemed much older because most of it was destroyed and the remaining structures are not very well kept.  It reminded me of the Forbidden City in Beijing, but on a much smaller scale.

Entrance to the Forbidden City

In the courtyard


Halls of the Manadarins

Our final stop was at the Heavenly lady pagoda.  By this time, we were a bit pagoda'd and temple'd out, so I didn't take many pictures.

After a fun day of touring, our guides dropped us off at our hotel, but not before taking a posed picture of us on their bikes.

(cue: baaaaaad to the bone)

As for the rest of our stay in Hue, we ended up spending an extra day holed up in the hotel due to upset stomachs.  Andy had it worse than me so while he rested, I went out and got my hair cut, did a little shopping, and ate some good food.  You can check out the rest of my Hue photos here.  After a day of rest, we were back in action and flew out Ho Chi Minh City to wrap up our tour of Vietnam.  More about that in the next post!

Hanoi

Ok so it's already 12 days into the new year, but I can still say Happy New Year because this is my first post of the year!  (I know, not a very timely start to blogging this year).

We spent this past Christmas and New Year's touring Vietnam.  We kicked off our trip in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Being our first experience of Vietnam, we were warned by many friends about the craziness of traffic.  On our first day, we stepped out of the hotel doors and into the street scene:

Busy streets of the Old Quarter


Woman selling snacks....note the woman buying/eating the snacks has a shower cap on....


Woman carrying her restaurant around

        

   Turnip vendor                                                        Flower vendor

Little santa running around on Christmas day

The woman selling bananas saw me snapping her pic so she posed for me....and then proceeded to walk over, put her hat on Andy and gave him her bananas for a photo.  Then she put them on me.

      

Of course afterwards, she "made" us buy some bananas.  At first she was charging an exorbitant amount, but I bargained her down and gave in.

Near our hotel, a street was closed down at night for the night market.  While doing some shopping, Andy noticed this great shirt:

umm....what??

After checking out the street scenes, we visited some of the historical and cultural sites Hanoi had to offer:

Hoan Kiem Lake

Tu Huc Bridge on Hoan Kiem Lake - the lake with the legendary giant tortoise

Lots of tourists on Tu Huc Bridge

      

  Tortoise Tower in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake by day and by night

Museum of Ethnology

Saw a water puppet show at the Museum of Ethnology


Andy in front of the Tay Stilt house


Andy in the long house


Caught a tourist manhandling the steps to the longhouse....

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and museum

We also visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and lined up to actually see Uncle Ho.  The guards were very strict and told people to keep their hands out of their pockets.  I had my hands behind my back and was reprimanded by the guard to keep my hands at my side at all times.

The stilt house that Ho Chi Minh lived in

      
A building at the Ho Chi Minh complex with a great sign

Army Museum

Onward ho!

In case you can't read it, the sign says "A steel helmet - evidence of the failure of the French"

The flag tower

Andy hiding among the bomb

Us in the cockpit of a Chinook helicopter

Temple of Literature

At the Temple of Literature

Stumbled across a Vietnamese prom picture

Andy and the stork standing on a turtle

Funny sign

Halong Bay

We took a day trip out to Halong bay.  After 4.5 hours on a mini bus, we stepped onto a junk and sailed into the bay.

We stopped at the fishermen's floating village

The floating bank

We also visited a cave, these signs were everywhere....

looks like someone skipped their grammar lesson on prepositions

Our boat, the Song Bien 19

Sunset in the bay

Finally, the food - oh the glorious food!  We had many a bowl of pho, the Vietnamese eat pho for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner.  We also tried some new items.  Our favorite dish was the shrimp hash fried on sugar cane, which was then wrapped with fresh herbs and veggies in rice paper...DELISH!

Shrimp hash fried on sugar cane

      

  Andy wrapping his spring roll                                  Shrimp and Pork noodles

       

  The pho man                                                     Two bowls of steaming pho

Andy enjoying his pho at one of the street kitchens - sitting on little plastic stools


Glass noodles with seafood salad

We also got to eat at a fancy French restaurant some of the standouts were:

Parma ham and goat cheese salad


Tuna


Creme brulee

Of course, my last meal in Hanoi was...

Pho for breakfast!!!

For the rest of my pics taken in Hanoi, you can view them in this album (be forewarned, there are alot!)  Next stop in our trip - Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam.