Day 15 of 36
Hue, Vietnam
We slept "late" today - until 7:20. It is going to be another very hot and humid day. I think it is the humidity that is getting to us and zapping us so.
We showered, dressed, and went again to the hotel breakfast buffet. Good. Tim did Vietnamese noodles in soup. I can do Vietnamese once a day but that's about it. he relished the Vietnamese food and eats it all with great gusto!
We didn't want to do an organized tour today and wanted to venture out on our own. We were the ONLY Western people we saw all in the city. We left the hotel on foot accosted by cycle drivers who are constantly wanting to give us a ride - $5 for 1 hour? We walked to the "water puppetry theatre and decided not to do that. We walked across the large bridge and were amazed again by the bikes with large chests the men were pedalling. We are getting better at crossing the streets but some intersections are definitely a challenge.
There is a "trade show" on and we walked through it - interesting to watch - definitely for locals. We walked on the large street trying to stay in the shade as even at 9:30 in the morning it was HOT and STEAMY! We found a HUGE local market and wandered all through it. Many of the locals approached us to buy things. Everyon wanted us to look. There were specialized stalls - toiletries crammed in to some, a huge area with vegetables and foods, hair things, paper goods, tissue paper, fresh chicken sitting out in the open air (nothing was refrigerated) . . . just about anything you can imagine.
We left the market and sat on the curb in the shade to catch our breath. The next challenge was how to get across the street since 5 streets converged at this point. There was a cross walk but we weren't sure that would help. Finally a woman appeared wanting to cross the street too - Tim yelled "Follow Her!" and we did. We let her lead the way through the mixture of traffic all of the way across the street. We roamed around the outskirts of the citadel city - specialized small shops - audio components, flower shops, furniture, motorbike stenciling, jewelry, etc. Again, just about everything in very small shops. We went into the old city following a really old woman (here we go again). This was really a small space with bikes and cars and busses and us! But she led us through safely. Lesson to self: Follow the locals!
We stopped for ice cream for Larry (yummy and only $ .50) and walked through a grocery store - not many of these around. I bought 2 bottles of cold water for $ .12 each! We set off to head back to the hotel - hot and sweaty. We had a good lunch at the hotel in the air conditioning and then headed to the pool for a relaxing afternoon of reading and snoozing. It was delightful. We tried a Sangria that was really bad, I mean really bad! Let's save the Sangria for Spain!
We headed back to our room to enjoy our bottle of red Vietnamese wine - Dalat - that we bought in the market in Hoi An yesterday for $4.50. Tim said - It's been sitting in that hot stall for weeks and is probably really awful - but it was good. What a bargain! We watched the sun set over the Perfume River and commented that it had cleared up considerably since the rains had stopped before we arrived. We also commented that there was incredibly little river traffic on the river.
We showered, dressed and headed into Hue City to the Temple Restaurant for dinner. An unforgettable experience. We both had a fixed price Vietnamese dinner - it had 4 courses instead of the typical 7 or 8. The soup with the tiny noodles and crab was the best. Rice was cold! We walked down the main street to see the Cau Truing Tien Bridge - it is all lit up and changes colors from section to section - blue, yellow, red, pink, white. It was cool. We walked back to the restaurant district and found a taxi and headed back to the hotel La Residence.
A little CNN and then to sleep. A relaxing day in Hue.
Hue, Vietnam
We slept "late" today - until 7:20. It is going to be another very hot and humid day. I think it is the humidity that is getting to us and zapping us so.
We showered, dressed, and went again to the hotel breakfast buffet. Good. Tim did Vietnamese noodles in soup. I can do Vietnamese once a day but that's about it. he relished the Vietnamese food and eats it all with great gusto!
We didn't want to do an organized tour today and wanted to venture out on our own. We were the ONLY Western people we saw all in the city. We left the hotel on foot accosted by cycle drivers who are constantly wanting to give us a ride - $5 for 1 hour? We walked to the "water puppetry theatre and decided not to do that. We walked across the large bridge and were amazed again by the bikes with large chests the men were pedalling. We are getting better at crossing the streets but some intersections are definitely a challenge.
There is a "trade show" on and we walked through it - interesting to watch - definitely for locals. We walked on the large street trying to stay in the shade as even at 9:30 in the morning it was HOT and STEAMY! We found a HUGE local market and wandered all through it. Many of the locals approached us to buy things. Everyon wanted us to look. There were specialized stalls - toiletries crammed in to some, a huge area with vegetables and foods, hair things, paper goods, tissue paper, fresh chicken sitting out in the open air (nothing was refrigerated) . . . just about anything you can imagine.
We left the market and sat on the curb in the shade to catch our breath. The next challenge was how to get across the street since 5 streets converged at this point. There was a cross walk but we weren't sure that would help. Finally a woman appeared wanting to cross the street too - Tim yelled "Follow Her!" and we did. We let her lead the way through the mixture of traffic all of the way across the street. We roamed around the outskirts of the citadel city - specialized small shops - audio components, flower shops, furniture, motorbike stenciling, jewelry, etc. Again, just about everything in very small shops. We went into the old city following a really old woman (here we go again). This was really a small space with bikes and cars and busses and us! But she led us through safely. Lesson to self: Follow the locals!
We stopped for ice cream for Larry (yummy and only $ .50) and walked through a grocery store - not many of these around. I bought 2 bottles of cold water for $ .12 each! We set off to head back to the hotel - hot and sweaty. We had a good lunch at the hotel in the air conditioning and then headed to the pool for a relaxing afternoon of reading and snoozing. It was delightful. We tried a Sangria that was really bad, I mean really bad! Let's save the Sangria for Spain!
We headed back to our room to enjoy our bottle of red Vietnamese wine - Dalat - that we bought in the market in Hoi An yesterday for $4.50. Tim said - It's been sitting in that hot stall for weeks and is probably really awful - but it was good. What a bargain! We watched the sun set over the Perfume River and commented that it had cleared up considerably since the rains had stopped before we arrived. We also commented that there was incredibly little river traffic on the river.
We showered, dressed and headed into Hue City to the Temple Restaurant for dinner. An unforgettable experience. We both had a fixed price Vietnamese dinner - it had 4 courses instead of the typical 7 or 8. The soup with the tiny noodles and crab was the best. Rice was cold! We walked down the main street to see the Cau Truing Tien Bridge - it is all lit up and changes colors from section to section - blue, yellow, red, pink, white. It was cool. We walked back to the restaurant district and found a taxi and headed back to the hotel La Residence.
A little CNN and then to sleep. A relaxing day in Hue.
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