Vietnam – saskatoonie.com

January 25, 2019January 25, 2019

Friday January 25, 2019

Day 2 in Saigon

Today we had breakfast with Andrew, said good by at 10 am and headed to our room to look after some bills online.

We headed out at 11 am and hit the big market. There is so much stuff under one roof, its easy to get lost. Gary bought another watch as he dropped his watch from Hoi An yesterday and smashed the crystal.

We went to the mall for lunch and had chicken skewers with lemonade soda. It was ok.

We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post office. They are right next to each other. The post office was designed by the famous Gustave Eiffel.

We then walked to the Bitexco Tower where we paid to go up to the 49th floor observation deck. Then at 3:20 we got in on the first Heineken tour of the day which was an extra charge as well. We went up to the 60th floor from there we worked down to the 55th.

We had 3 glasses of Heineken beer and they sent us home with a special bottle of our our beer.

We walked by the Elbow-Room Bistro where we had originally thought to go to last night but gave up when we could not get a Grab vehicle after 10 minutes of waiting. Grab remember is the Uber of Asia

We walked home in heavy traffic and made it to the hotel tired and hot. We visited with Anh the young lady at the front desk. She was kind enough to offer us an orange juice when we arrived and happy to practice her English on us. We had a very interesting conversation about the two languages of English and Vietnamese. She has excellent English and has learned it all on her own. She is a smart gal! Her English is as good as we have heard spoken in Vietnam by a local person. We headed to the Jacuzzi for a cooling dip, and then showered to be ready for bed on time.

As we are sitting here updating our blog at 8:30 pm there is loud music playing down the street. Very LOUD! We have a car booked for 10 am to make our flight from Saigon to Phnom Penh 1:10 pm tomorrow.

It was 33 C today but felt like 34C. It’s still 26C. The evenings here are so warm and comfortable. It’s a great time to get out and walk with the other over 8 million people in this city. During the daytime you can see the smog, even smell it. It was clearly visible from the observation deck.

A 2016 statistics record over 2 people per day are killed in traffic accidents. That year saw 4,200 new cars and 9,000 new motorbikes being registered monthly.

January 24, 2019January 24, 2019

Thursday January 24, 2019

Saigon

Today we went for breakfast in the lobby of our little hotel. Breakfast was good however the coffee seems to be limited to one cup each. While we were eating our fruit, eggs, toast and cappuccino Linda noticed a rat running along the cement wall outside our hotel. It was a healthy looking rat and high speed too. You have to realize there are rats, and cockroaches in the tropics! The only place that advertises a rat free world is Alberta, Canada. Believe what you want. As long as the rats don’t come any closer to our room, we’ll be ok. Linda said the windows definitely stay closed now! I’m wearing running shoes today! I’m sure the rat traps you see outside the doors at Costco are used to catch kittens too. We just don’t see our rats at home, they know better.

We were lazy and slow moving this morning so it was just after 10 am when we finally got organized. We got out to the street and we were hit up by the bicycle rickshaw guy to take a tour. We said no, he insisted! We said, we the two of us were too big to for the seat. He offered for one of us to ride in the rickshaw and one of his friends scooter. Nope, that wasn’t happening so he phoned another rickshaw who magically appeared. We ended up going to War Remnants Museum here in Saigon by rickshaw. We paid 300,000 VND ($17.27 CAD) for the 10 minute ride. It was pretty cool to be peddled around the busy streets at the same speed as the cars and motor scooters. Anyhow, next time we’ll just walk, At the end of the day we did walk back to the hotel. It was quite warm today, likely about 34C and bright sun.

The War Museum is as advertised, communist propaganda. Its original name was Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes. It was changed in the 1990s when USA and Vietnam normalized relations. It’s a pretty biased tale of evil and all the blame falls on the USA. There are lots of USA aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, bombs, guns and other weapons on display at the museum. One of the best exhibits was likely the photos taken by foreign and local photographers during the war. Although many were heartbreaking the images depicted didn’t have any agenda or one-sided story to tell, they were simply trying to show the horror at the time. Sadly many of the photographers were killed and over 17 are still missing to this day having been captured/killed in Cambodia.

After enough horror at the museum (it is very depressing) we walked to the Independence Palace which is interesting but nothing too exciting. It’s also known as the Reunification Palace. It’s nice the country is reunited, but the people of Vietnam have had a hard life between the French colonization and American war. Everyone had their hands in the cookie jar and as usual the lowly people suffered the most.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a mini mart and bough 4 cans of beer for $2 and spent the rest of the $15 on cashews and peanut brittle. Cashews are a mainstay here, albeit expensive. We’ll eat some of the local food but we’re pretty picky about where we dine. Beer and cashes go well together in hot weather.

We’re meeting a guy tonight that Gary worked with in 2005-2008 with BJ Services. Andrew is passing through Saigon on his way to his next job, after his latest hitch on an offshore rig in the South China Sea. Gary contacted Andrew shortly after Christmas when Andrew posted on Facebook that he was travelling to Vietnam. What are the odds you can pull off a meeting on the other side of the world with a month’s notice? It just happened. We had a great supper and good visit. Facebook made it possible. The irony of it all, we walked to TNT BBQ for supper and they were closed for a staff member’s wedding. By some stroke of luck we found a pizza and ribs place nearby.

It was a pleasant walk back to our hotel at 8:30 pm. The sidewalks were crowded with football fans with a few big screen TVs on the street, people sitting on plastic chairs or their scooters watching and drinking. Vietnam was playing Japan.

January 23, 2019January 23, 2019

Wednesday January 23, 2019

Travel from Nha Trang to Saigon

Today we wasted another day travelling. We departed our hotel, An Vista in Nha Trang at 8:30 am. Our one hour flight from Nha Trang to Saigon took the majority of the day! There was a 45 minute trip to the Nha Trang airport, a flight delay of 90 minutes, then a 7 km trip from the Saigon airport which took 45 minutes in absolute grid lock traffic. We didn’t arrive at our hotel until after 3 pm. According to google maps walking wasn’t much slower, than our car ride, getting across the streets though would have added hours to the walk in 32 degree temperatures. As the pilot said on our last flight 32 degrees above zero. LOL

We checked into the La Luna hotel. Our room while smaller than most we’ve stayed in so far is clean and comfortable. There is something about travelling that wears you down! The bed was calling our name so we took it easy for a bit, did some unpacking and figured out the safe. Every safe has its own trick to open and close. We always try to have it figured out before we start locking our stuff in it!

While relaxing we found an email in the SPAM folder from Cambodia Angkor Air notifying us of a flight time change on Saturday. We now leave at 1:30 pm instead of 8:30 am. I guess we’ll be sleeping in. That means leaving the hotel by 10 am.

We googled a place to eat supper and found a restaurant called TNT Barbecue. It’s only 300 m from our hotel, if we hadn’t taken the wrong street. We got there in 10 minutes, 3 near misses on the sidewalk, one car and 2 scooters. Traffic here is hell. Blocks of scooters stopped in gridlock and rogue scooters driving down the sidewalk in a steady stream. Yes and we met a sedan on the sidewalk. If a pedestrian is in the way they honk. The city of no rules, Saigon Vietnam. The communist government wants you to call it Ho Chi Minh City, but considering the people of the south call it Saigon, we rest the case.

Supper was fantastic and also the most expensive meal we have had in Vietnam. We left 600,000 VND which converts to $34.50 CAD including tip. We tipped American style in a restaurant that is owned by an American! The TNT BBQ Restaurant owner, Logan came to Vietnam is 2009 to teach English and he’s still here. He’s from rural Oklahoma, and Gary knew it as soon as Logan started talking to us. Logan knew more than any city raised kid would ever know – custom harvesters from Canada, grain augers and cattle. We had the best brisket we have ever tasted, hands down, period. We shared brisket, ribs and vegetable skewers along with 3 beer (not each).

We walked back to the hotel to wait for the spa jacuzzi to get up to temperature. Its a warm evening and there are food vendors every inch the way along the 4 blocks we walked between our hotel and the TNT BBQ Restaurant.

While we have been blown away by the traffic and sheer volume of scooters we’ve seen to date, everyone kept telling us, “wait until you hit Saigon”. They weren’t kidding! The city is a hive of activity, much it zooming by on the streets, some on the sidewalks. Tonight the congestion was unimaginable and many businesses have someone hired who sits outside of the business and parks scooters on the sidewalk. They jam them all together and when the owner comes back they carefully extract it from the mass. See the traffic below as we viewed it out of the car window this afternoon.

Needless to say pedestrians are not much of a consideration and you dodge around holes in the sidewalks, broken pavement or bricks and scooters, both parked and moving. We did have a major intersection we had to cross tonight and thankfully there were traffic lights which helped slightly. Otherwise you take a deep breath and step off the sidewalk and slowly start crossing the street while the cars and scooters work their way around you. Thankfully we had watched some YouTube videos before we left home and learned a few tips about crossing the streets. Even at that, it is still a bit unnerving. The honking never stops, we can even hear it from our hotel room faintly. Thank goodness our hotel is down an alley and not on the main drag! While our hotel is located in the downtown and one of the most congested traffic areas it is well located and we will be able to walk to a number of the sites. The hotel promotes a number of tours you can do of which the majority use a scooter as the mode of transportation. That’s not going to happen!! Thank goodness we can walk to pretty much all of the spots we want to see!

Good Night Vietnam

We’ve had a long day

January 22, 2019January 22, 2019

Tuesday January 22, 2019

Nha Trang - rain at the beach

Today we reserved the hotel’s beach beds at the beach. Our allotted time was 11 am to 2 pm, which would have been more than enough sun on a normal day. It rained. We got partway to the beach, it started pouring. We ducked into a coffee shop along the way. You can never get tired of Vietnamese coffee, especially one that is sold as chocolate flavoured.

After it stopped raining we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool bar, and eventually sitting on lounge chairs by the pool, reading or in Gary’s case snoring slightly.

While it was raining we looked for options for March after we leave Thailand. We are having trouble coming up with a plan. Anyone reading this with a good idea should email us! Our places we want to visit are throwing road blocks in the way. Coron, Philippines is restricting the weight of our checked luggage to 10 Kgs. On Philippine Airlines there is no option to pay more for extra luggage. Cebu Pacific Airlines had a non functioning website, we wonder how they stay in business! Sky Jet was too expensive. The search continues when we have spare time and good internet connections.

We went for supper at Tuans Vietnamese Restaurant and it was busy tonight! The serving size was smaller than last night, so we managed to clean our plates off. We spent $12 on beer and food. Amazing! Once again, as usual, Russians were out in full force for supper. We met a Russian in the elevator and Gary asked him where he lived. Yakutsk! It was colder there than Saskatoon by only 4 degrees. Yakutsk is in Siberia and there are direct flights to Nha Trang. We don’t feel so large with all the Russians around town, they are typically well fed and tall like we are. In other words, we fit in well with the Russians. We just cant communicate too well!

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019

Monday January 21, 2019

Wake up!

The beach city of Nha Trang Vietnam

We started out our day with breakfast on the first floor of the hotel in the breakfast room. Breakfast was good, with a mixture of European and Vietnamese foods. There were 3 dry cereal options, corn flake, rice crisps and coco-puffs. The coffee was hot and weaker than other places we’ve been. The watermelon was once again delicious. There was also dragon fruit but no passion fruit today. We took a picture of the work of art on display for breakfast. We’re not sure who gets to eat the flowering watermelon sculpture. Someone has talent on the kitchen crew! The breakfast included Pho, or eggs to order if you wish. So many choices and no room to store the food!

As we were leaving the breakfast room, we were approached by Maria, an associate with the hotel. She knew our name! We are an anomaly in Nha Trang. She asked us; how was our room? Was the A/C working ok? Did we have plans to tour the city? We could borrow bicycles if we wanted or rent a motor scooter…. Another very warm welcome to us as foreigners in Vietnam. Very nice! We did mention the one reading light by the bed was like a strobe light and she called maintenance right away and they were in our room and had it replaced in minutes!

Yesterdays trip from the Cam Ranh airport took about 45 minutes. The drive is literally through desert like costal highway. Sand dunes and hotel construction are the only thing you see besides the ocean. It looks like a Las Vegas hotel strip on steroids. We must have passed by 20 or 30 huge buildings under construction along the highway, and that was before we entered the city of Nha Trang. The main reason we even looked at coming here was the cost of flights, cheap! $95.04 USD for 2 tickets from Da Nang, a one hour flight.

There is one road (many kilometres in length) along the the beach in Nha Trang and we are one block off the beach on a side street. The side street is cool, with stores and vendors for the whole block. We may wish we had allocated more time for this city. We’ll see. We are on our quest for the perfect location. We are not the whitest skinned people here in Nha Trang, there are many Russians and the signs everywhere indicate that they are a huge tourist component here. Menus, please keep quiet signs, directions etc, all in Vietnamese, Russian and English.

Thank Google for Google Translate! We use it on a daily basis. Another interesting fact, we purchased two sim cards for our phones for $8USD each when we arrived in Vietnam, they are still working and have a 2Gb data limit per day. I have made several local calls and received a few as well. We have also used local SMS. They have excellent Data 3G, 4G and LTE speeds here. The cost of living hasn’t caught up to Vietnam yet. By the way they are building hotels in this area, it will happen eventually. The hospitality industry here is so polite and accommodating, it is quite overwhelming.

Here are some pictures from the beach and walk back today.

January 20, 2019January 20, 2019

Sunday January 20, 2019

Hoi An to Nha Trang

Today we checked out of our hotel at 10:30 am and headed for the airport in Da Nang. The trip is about 45 minutes and the cost was about $20 USD. Our vehicle was at tToyota 4 Runner which was powered by a diesel engine. It was the nicest vehicle we have been in on this trip. I don’t think we travelled over 70 km/h.

We checked in to VietJet and proceeded through security. Gary had an unopened battle of water and the security guy placed it under the laptop in the plastic bin. We passed through security fine. Todays theme was no shoes, so we had to remove our shoes.

We ate a light lunch at the Heineken Bar on the air-side departure lounge. Basket of chips, 45.000 VND, 3 chicken skewers 45,000 VND and 2 Larue beer also 45,000 VND each. Total $10.25 CAD which for an airport is pretty low cost. The trick was only one food item per beer purchase.

Our flight was late departing Da Nang, but it eventually did get us to Nha Trang about 30 minutes late.

Our pick up car was also late so by the time we got to the An Vista Hotel in Nha Trang it was almost 5pm, our whole day was shot travelling on a one hour plane flight. The good news, the weather seems to be perfect in Nha Trang, food is cheaper than anywhere we have been and the beer is even cheaper than water.

We ate supper at a Vietnamese restaurant across the street, then walked to the beach one block. Crossing the street to get to the beach is not easy. No street light, just a crosswalk marked on the pavement. You must wait for a lull in traffic to get across! 2 lanes of traffic in each direction with a median in the middle to wait.

We came back to the hotel and left our valuables in the safe and went for a massage. We paid 180,000 VND for 1 hour body massage. $10.25 CAD each. We left a 50,000 VND tip and the girls were very happy. We feel good too, their massages are a bit wacky, but they literally hit the spot.

January 20, 2019January 20, 2019

Saturday January 19, 2019

Hoi An - last full day

We ate breakfast around 7:30 am. The usual tropical fruit and cornflakes, coffee, cinnamon croissants etc. Gary lived on the wild side and had one small croissant with the usual 4 plates of fruit and a bowl corn flakes. The milk is never cold here and it really matters on dry cereal. The coffee is never piping hot either! We figured out why our coffee wasn’t hot, the coffee pot is sitting on a warmer that is turned off.

We snagged a couple of small umbrellas for insurance today. As it happened, there was no rain of any consequence.

We wandered around Old Town Hoi An, now that we know the lay of the land. It’s fun just looking at the shops and not buying anything. There are fruit, vegetable and fish markets along the river and the produce is beautiful and plentiful. The mangos here are HUGE!

At 11 am we went back for a tailor fitting. The shirts for Gary are all done, collars fit his neck. It will remain to be seen if he is happy with the cut of the shirt after the altering of the collar. The pants and suit are perfect. Silk lined suit jackets, that’s a first! The silk lining was an extra $10 or $12 USD, can’t recall the exact amount.

Linda had her shoe fitting at 1 pm and the shoes fit like a glove! The handbag was also perfect. We got everything back to the tailor and paid the final bill as well as the cost for shipping everything home. If it goes well our stuff will be waiting at home when we arrive. It’s getting shipped to our neighbour who was kind enough to accept the challenge of receiving the 13.5 Kg package. 2 suits, 6 shirts for Gary. Linda gets 1 sexy black dress, one coat, one pair of shoes and one handbag. All custom made to order!

We finished off the evening at a cool little riverfront restaurant named the Thành restaurant. The food was excellent. Because of the full moon celebration all of the restaurant lights and street lights were turned off and we ate by candle light. The boats on the river are all lit with Japanese style paper or fabric lanterns. It was quite beautiful. We were pretty much done supper and ready to leave when a lady came along and asked us if we were english speaking. So the conversation started with her, she was from Montreal. Eventually she sat down and we visited for 45 minutes. She was travelling alone, 64 years old, she also had a few stories to tell. It was quite interesting. We left her to finish her meal, which by the way was the same dish Gary ordered, chicken fire roasted on a banana leaf. It was excellent and served with rice. She also taught us the official and correct way to use chop sticks. She took a cooking class in China. It was a good night!

Back at the hotel it was bedtime, our feet were tired. We wore our running shoes today to help preserve our feet on the uneven streets. Running shoes are not as cool as flip flops but the chance to break your neck or elbow are considerably less.

January 18, 2019January 18, 2019

Friday January 18, 2019

Hoi An

We had breakfast this morning at our hotel the Riverside White House Villa in Hot An. There was lots of fresh fruit, you could order eggs and other items including cornflakes. There was fresh pastries coffee juice etc.

After breakfast we came back to the room and went through some sorting of pictures on the computer and updated our blog. We also did to hotels.com and trip advisor reviews for the places we have stayed recently. Linda scoured the internet for flight information to get us to the Philippines in March.

We packed the umbrellas, jackets and water, then headed to the old town Hoi An. It was quite nice to walk on dry streets, like a different world from yesterday. We got to old town and saw the old covered Japanese Bridge but did not cross it yet we walked around farther into old town and bought tickets to get into all the historical buildings. Old town is funded by charging tourists a fee to keep things looked after. When you go into the historic building they clip a piece off he ticket. The cost was 120,000 VND or $6.75 CAD each. Everyone want to sell you something.

We walked back to old town with the aid our iPhone. Actually we photographed the menu items we liked and the pictures showed up on the map. It was easy to trace our steps back to the same spot we had seen before lunch.

Supper was good, Linda had sweet and sour chicken and pineapple with steamed rice, Gary has sweet and sour fish (white filet) and steamed rice and we shared an order of vegetarian spring rolls that were as good as the ones from he street cafe this morning. All the food with 3 beer total and it set us back $17.50. The Restaurant was called the Bear Garden Restaurant. It was so obscure to find, if we had not wandered by it this morning we would have never seen it. We also did a Trip Advisor review on it. Full points for food and even clean a washroom. They even had full sized chairs, some places have kid sized lawn chairs. Some Vietnamese people are so tiny! We’re afraid to sit in the kid sized chairs!

We headed back to the hotel after supper enjoying the shops along the way. There was only foot traffic with a few bicycles along the narrow streets of old town Hoi An tonight. A pleasant treat after dodging scooter all day long. Pedestrians don’t have any right of way here, its really unfortunate! Narrow streets over run with scooters and no sidewalks for pedestrians. Many of the sidewalks are lines with parked motor scooters or cars and sometimes tour buses.

Tomorrow we pick up our tailored items and find a way to ship them home.

January 17, 2019January 17, 2019

Thursday January 17, 2019

Wednesday January 16 we had a rain day. We walked around Hue, found the Post Office of Vietnam, mailed a letter and wandered the streets stopping for coffee and snacks along the way. We finished of the afternoon with a 90 minute massage for about $25 CAD each. We felt pampered and ready for supper at the Elegant Restaurant which we visited on the city tour the day before. We had a great meal. We both had Chicken skewers with vegetables done on a grill.

Travel from Hue to Hoi An

Today we headed to Hoi An from Hue. We had a car booked, we thought for 8:00. When we arrived in lobby to check out they said they’d call the driver to come early as he was supposed to be there at 8:30. They said it was a pleasant change for guests to be ready to go as usually the drivers have to wait. They hadn’t even finished phoning the driver and one walked in the door. They proceeded to load all our stuff and I waited in the car while Gary ran to the washroom. Next thing I know there is a big panic that it’s the wrong car and driver so they proceeded to unload everything! No worries our driver showed up only minutes later and by 8:05 we were on the road. On the way we went through the Hai Van Tunnel , the longest tunnel in Southeast Asia at 6.28 km (3.90 mi) that lies on Highway 1 between the cities of Hue and Da Nang. We arrived at our hotel just after 11:00. It rained the entire way!

The Van Hai pass tunnel is 11.9 m wide and the longest tunnel in Southeast Asia at 6.28 km . A second tunnel running alongside the main tunnel is currently used for maintenance and emergencies but it is planned to expand this at a later date as traffic increases. It is connected to the main tunnel by 15 cross-tunnels. The tunnels have lighting, fire alarms, communication, water supply and treatment, ventilation fans, and radio broadcast systems. We texted Gary’s Mom in Saskatoon, Canada while we were in the tunnel!

We were too early to check in so stashed our bags with the front desk. They provided us with a map, some recommendations and an umbrella! We headed out. Trying to navigate with an umbrella is enough to make you crazy, if not wet. The streets are narrow and vehicles and motorbikes park on the sidewalks as there is no where else to park. In many spots you can’t get down the sidewalk because of parked vehicles, awnings, posts, hanging wires or any number of hazards! The alternative is to try and walk on the street and not get taken out by a cyclist, motorbike, car, bus or truck which are all jockeying for space and trying to zoom by as quickly as possible. We safely, although wet, did arrive at one of the recommended tailors. Gary got measured for a suit and some dress shirts. I got measured for a jacket and dress. After looking at tons of material and options we finally settled on our selections and negotiated a price. The tailor then walked us down the street to her sister’s shop where she makes custom leather goods. Linda ordered a pair of sandals and a hand bag. We go back later tomorrow afternoon for fittings on everything.

From there we found our way back to our hotel to exchange our soggy running shoes for flip flops. The entire umbrella experience didn’t improve as we ended up in the market area where the streets are even skinnier. We finally found a coffee shop where we could get out of the rain! We ordered mocha coffees, chicken Pho and some good old French fries. After killing as much time as we could we headed back to the hotel. And yes, it continued to rain! We got checked in. Our room is on the 4th floor and is a bit of a hike up all the stairs. The room reminds me of the bedrooms at our farm house with sloping ceiling/walls and a beam I’m sure at some point one of us will crack our head on.

We scouted out a Thai restaurant fairly close to our hotel and had supper there. It’s still raining!! Not too sure what we’ll do tomorrow as it makes it very difficult to sight see in this weather. Looking at the weather forecast we will likely have rain for all of our stay in Hoi An which is too bad as everyone has been telling us how great it is.

We managed to make it through today but it hit the pocket book hard. Suits, shirts, coat, shoes and purse.

January 17, 2019January 17, 2019

Tuesday January 15, 2019

Hue Vietnam

Khai Dinh tomb was our first stop on our city tour with our English speaking guide Ngoc Phuong (aka Show). I hope we got that right!

The main entrance is served by a massive set of steps. Inside there are lots of intricately designed porcelain and glass decorations on the walls. The ceiling of the palace was decorated with 9 dragons.

Our second stop was Minh Mang tomb. Minh Mang was the second emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam. He reigned from Feb 14, 1820 until his death Jan 20, 1841. He was well known for his opposition to French involvement in Vietnam. In 1825 he banned missionaries from entering Vietnam. Between 1833 and 1838 he sentenced seven missionaries to death to stifle the spread of christianity. Over 70% of Vietnamese are Buddhist today.

Our Third stop was Tu Duc Tomb. This was built for the Emperor Tu Duc taking 3 years to build from 1864 – 1867. Emperor Tu Duc was the longest reigning monarch the Nguyen Dynasty, ruling from 1848 – 1883.

The son of Emperor Thieu Tri, Prince Nguyen Phuoc Hoang Nham was chosen over his older brother to succeed his father. He ascended the throne in 1847, taking the reigning name Tu Duc. He continued his father’s persecution of missionaries and opposition to trading and diplomatic relations with European powers. Executions reached such proportions that the French in 1856 sent a formal letter of protest to the court of Hue.

He had over 100 wives and concubines and failed to produce any heir to his throne. It is believe he was sterile from having contracted small pox.

Our Fourth stop was the incense store / incense manufacturing. Here we saw how incense sticks are handmade at a small table. Linda tried her hand at the art of making incense sticks. We looked around the shops and ended up buying a small hand held decorative fold out fan.

Our Fifth stop was the Elegant Restaurant. Here we were served a pre-set menu as part of our tour package (drinks extra charge).

Chicken and Mushroom Soup
Fried Duck Spring Roll
Egg Plant with Ginger Sauce
Braised Chicken with Lemongrass
Red Snapper Fish with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Steamed Rice
Fruit Salads

We also ordered a Tiger beer for good luck. Lunch was very tasty, in fact it was so good we went back to the restaurant the next night for our final night in Hue

Our Sixth stop was the Imperial City of Hue. The Imperial city is a walled enclosure within the Citadel of the city of Hue, the former Imperial capital of Vietnam. It is a UNESCO world heritage site.

The Citadel (Imperial City) was damaged in a war with the French in 1947 that destroyed many of the major structures. The American / Vietnam war in 1968 battle of Hue initially US troops were ordered not to bomb the city because of the historic structure. As casualties mounted, the allied forces had to begin bombing due to the anti aircraft guns on the Citidel’s outer towers. Out of 160 buildings only 10 major sites remained because of the battle. The buildings that remained are being restored and preserved.

Our Seventh stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda. This historic and iconic temple is the unofficial symbol of the city of Hue. It sits on the Northern bank of the perfume river. It was built in 1601. The original temple was simply constructed and later expanded and refurbished.

There is a Buddhist congregation that looks after the pagoda and surrounding grounds and buildings.

A building near the rear of the complex houses a national relic: the old Austin car in which the monk Thich Quang Duc rode from his temple to Saigon on June 11, 1963. He stepped out of the car in an intersection, sat down in the lotus position, and burned himself to death in protest against the regime’s violations of religious freedom.

Our Eighth stop on the tour, our final stop was on the bank of the Perfume river in front of the Thien Mu Pagoda. We boarded a Dragon boat with a roof structure and headed along the river. The boat was actually the home of the Lady and Gentleman that operated it. We were solicited to buy things from their stash souvenirs. In the end we purchased a couple of fold out greeting cards. The hardest part of this trip is not buying things from the hawkers along the way. We are simply strapped for room. Two small carry on size suitcases and 2 backpacks for 2 full sized adults that need to have 72 days worth of clothing and medications etc. We are travelling light and cant be weighed down. The greeting cards worked because we’ll mail them tomorrow!

The couple that own the boat have 5 children, 25 grand children and 6 great grandchildren. The Lady entertained us as her husband navigated the river. There are many dragon boats on the river but nothing in comparison to the number of scooters on the streets of Hue or anywhere else in Vietnam. Scooters could be a complete story in itself, they are everywhere and the honk when approaching anything, including the lowly pedestrian.