Vietnam Trip Report: Part 2

Trip Report: Part 2
Our Train arrived in the town of Hue at about 11 am the next morning. We got a taxi and headed to our hotel to check in. We stayed in the Huong Giang hotel, which is a beautiful hotel overlooking the perfume river. It was still pretty rainy so we just wondered around town and did a little shopping. We book a boat trip for the next morning to go an tour all of the anciant sites around the area. Hue is the Acianet capital of Vietnam, so there are many ancient sites. Then we enjoyed another great dinner at a local Vietnamese restraunt. The next day we got up early and went to get breakfast. The hotel did an excellent job with the breakfast service and the many different kinds of fresh fruit were very enjoyable. At 9 am a driver arrived at the hotel to take us to our boat for the tour. All of the tour boats in hue have been decorated to look like dragons, the Vietnamese symbol for the king. Our tour guides where a Vietnamese family who operated the boat for tours during the day and lived on the boat at night. It was clean and nicely decorated, but very simple inside. The couple where friendly and pleasant, if only maybe a little to persistent that I buy some of the silk clothing they where selling. The first site we went to was the Thien Mu Pogoda. This a very famous religious site that is always crowded with pilgrims and monks. It was very interesting and I had a wonderful time taking pictures.
Then we headed to the Tomb of Minh Mang, about a ½ hour down river. During the trip Trang and I had a nice picnic lunch she made us and talked. We have been talking endlessly sense I arrived and it is just great. Our conversation is so natural and there is no misunderstanding between us at all. The Tomb is a huge site containing everything the dead emperor would need in his afterlife, even a lake to take boat rides on.
The next site we visit is the Tomb of Tu Doc, the most famous tomb in Vietnam. This site is incredible massive because all of Tu Doc’s over 100 wives and concubines all have temples there. The site contains some beautiful gardens, a pine forest and a very pretty lake. It is well worth the visit.
The final site we went to visit was the Great Purple City, the Vietnamese version of the forbidden city. This is an interesting site but allot of it was destroyed by the French and is now just stone foundations. The Nine Dynastic Urns, massive bronze castings, are interesting to see and it is amazing to think of how the where cast and transported in the early 18’th century. We wondered the site for about an hour and then it started to rain heavier so we decided to go back to town. We had a very nice dinner and then went to a little bar in town and I taught Trang how to play pool.
The next morning we went and did a little shopping. There are many wonderful little shops in Hue selling any thing you might want. The silk is the best in the country and the dress makers are very skilled. We find some very nice dresses but nothing in Trang’s size. We do not have enough time to have anything made for her so I promise her we will get some stuff in our next stop. We have lunch and then go to the train satiation to catch the train to Danang. Again Trang falls asleep in my arms during the 4 hour train ride to Danang and I am very happy just to watch her nap.
To be continued