Today was officially HOT! Perhaps that is because we were out wandering around ancient sites in the heat of the day. LOL. Our air conditioned hotel and air conditioned car were just fine but damn those ruins were smoking hot!
The day began with a breakfast buffet here at our hotel that was more than ample and beautifully laid out. Once we’d all had our fill and since we’d all had the best sleep in days in the super comfortable beds that are here. In fact, its not just the beds....it is the linens and the pillows and the temperature of the room and the quiet of the room and well.....our rooms are super nice. :-)
Our driver for the day, Mr Tong (sp?), had a lot of English so we were able to learn a lot from him in addition to the sites we’d be touring. First stop was the Imperial City. This city within the city of Hue was built by the first king of the region and has been inhabited by all others after him. It has been virtually destroyed twice (1947 wars with French and 1968 wars with America) and rebuilt and even enhanced to make it the tourist attraction it is today. The grounds are massive! Acres upon acres of lawns, gardens, ponds, and buildings. All are beautifully kept and maintained and the ambiance of the place is quiet and rather regal. We’d covered just the first section and already we felt ready to melt when Darlene spied some people in electric carts. In no time we had a price for one for 45 minutes and we were off to explore more of the grounds. Thank heaven for this cart! Had we not had it...there is no way we would have seen even 1/2 of what we did. There was a section of the city reserved just for the queen and queen mother that was really lovely and another really beautiful space that was for prayer and reflection. There were rooms with heavy beam ceilings and glass walls and there were rooms that were ornately decorated in gold leaf and paint. Yes, it was a very regal place!
Next stop was at the pagoda. This was a really interesting stop because it was at this pagoda that the first king lit a stick of incense and said, “I will walk until this stick burns out and when it does, that is where I will build the Imperial City”. The city he built when his stick burned out was the city we’d just come from! We had to climb a lot of steep stairs to get to the pagoda and then behind it there was a beautiful buddhist temple that is still used by many today.
This pagoda (like much of Hue) looks over the Perfume River. Tourists ride up and down the river in dragon boats (the motorized kind). We learned that the river got its name because it is a clean and fresh smelling river. The Vietnamese word for incense is Hong and because the river is so sweet smelling (like incense) it was given the name Hong River. The English word for Hong is Perfume....hence the Perfume River. :-)
From the Pagoda we were off to the tomb of Minh Mang which sits on a 44 acre parcel of land. It was constructed during his reign between 1820-1840. Again there are soooo many buildings and there is water and pine trees on both sides of the areas you’re meant to walk along. The place feels like there was a lot of thought and symbolism put into its design (which I’m sure there was) and today it also feels HOT HOT HOT! According to Mr Tong, when the emperor died his wife had to come and live the rest of her days at this site so it was built with her living there in mind too.
Darlene and I made it about 1/2 way to the actual tomb building before we decided the smart move was to turn around and return to some shade for a cool drink in front of a fan. Gail and Lynda pushed on and eventually located the end goal where they also found a place to buy a cold drink and sit for a minute before beginning the long walk back. We’re all drinking the Vietnamese version of Gatorade and hungry for the sugar spike we’ll get from a soft drink in this heat. Our clothes are soaked right through with sweat and we look like we’ve just climbed out of a pool but we’re all loving the adventure nonetheless.
There was one more tomb that we had a ticket for but we all agreed that we were done for the day and so we asked Mr Tong to just take us back to the hotel instead and we’re glad we did! There we found cool rooms and respite from the overheating we’d been doing all day. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent in our rooms just chatting and resting and resting and chatting.
By about 8 we were all feeling a little hungry and not one of us really wanted to go back out into the real world so....we decided on room service instead. What an adventure that turned out to be! Gail had phoned down to ask if it was possible to get a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. No one understood her. Shortly her phone rang with an English speaking staff on the other end. This time there was total understanding (or so we thought). “Absolutely”, we can make you a grilled cheese sandwich was the message Gail received loud and clear. A few minutes later a knock at the door presented us with the Vietnamese version of grilled cheese. They were three pieces of bread (none of which were toasted). In between the bread was cucumber, tomato, lettuce, and onion. On top of the top piece of bread there was some cheese that had obviously been “grilled” under the broiler to that piece of bread was toasted on one side and the cheese melted on top of the sandwich. In truth, we were all hungry and so the sandwich was good but boy did we have to laugh. Never had we ever seen a grilled cheese that looked anything like this! The fries were good and plentiful and so by the time we were finished our meal we had a small mountain of dishes to return to the kitchen and none of us were hungry any longer.
We chatted a while longer until Gail said, “time for you guys to leave now”....and that was it....we were done for this day. LOL. It was almost 10 pm after all and it had been a long day! Tomorrow will be here before we know it so I’d better sign off now too. Till next time,
Darlorlyngai
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