Our bus journey to Hue was very scenic and we traveled right up into the mountains. The views were great and the vendors up in the mountains were very aggressive (our tour guide had previously warned us about them!!). Once we got to our hotel we went for lunch in Mandarin coffee. The owner of this particular restaurant was a very skilled photographer and he even had a portfolio of his work for us to browse through whilst enjoying our meals. Once the bill was paid he gave us each a free post-card with his work on the front of it. After this we headed on a motor-bike tour, all 13 of us went. The cool thing about this tour was that it went in sequence. Mike was always ahead of me and if my driver overtook by mistake, then Mike's driver would instantly go head of us again. We always stuck together which was cool.
The city is located in central Vietnam on the banks of the Perfume River (Huong River), just a few miles inland from the South China Sea. It is about 700 km (438 mi.) South of the national capital of Hanoi and about 1100 km (690 mi.) North of Ho Chi Minh City, The country's largest city formerly known as Saigon.
The bike tour took us into small little alley ways and we got some fantastic views of the water buffalo. After this we visited a small village and our tour guide explained about the history of the farming here. An old woman, who was well able to go, demonstrated how to make rice, etc ... This irrigate Woman, along with other elderly Vietnamese Women, have black teeth. The reason behind this is that they want to maintain their original teeth, they do not believe in dentures!! They put a special paste on it. She was crazy in a funny way. She would sing to the beat when she was pounding the rice. As our tour guide said "She is the sweetest old woman you will ever meet."
Before leaving I got my fortune told to me. I will get married at 27, have three kids (two boys, one girl), I am starting my career next year and for some reason at the age of 43 I will get ridiculously drunk!! How random is that? We had a few more little stops and one in particular was interesting. We stopped at the King's Coliseum. In ancient times a Tiger would go up against an elephant. Our tour guide asked us who would triumph all the time .... We said the Tiger. However, it was the Elephant who always won because he represents the King .... That and the fact that the Tiger faced the Elephant minus his teeth and claws, how unfair is that! It was an awesome tour.
Gary
Gary
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