More adventures on a motorbike

Sunday was meant to be the day we headed to either Phong Nha caves or Paradise caves. However, that didn't quite work out and instead Meagan spoke to a motorbike owner to takes us around Hue to visit some of the tombs. Hue is rich in cultural heritage and even though we have been here almost a month, we have barely scratched the surface of places to visit. 9 am came and even though the sun was out in full blaze, it felt early. We sat on the back of motorbikes with Mr. Thang and Thieu (I could be totally wrong about the names) and left for Minh Mang tomb, which is about 30 minutes from the city. Along the way Mr. Thieu pointed out government buildings, the best school for boys in the city (also apparently Ho Chi Minh's school), a park-like area and a lady Buddha (which I swear to goodness I heard as lady Huda, the local beer, at first). We stopped en route and Mr. Thang rather dangerously stood in the middle of the road to take pictures for us. I did shriek at that and also a little when Mr. Thieu answered his phone (twice if I may say) and drove single-handed in heavy traffic. I also saw my first moto accident today and even though nobody was terribly hurt, it was frightening - it happened when the bikes were turning.

Dinosaur hatchling aka
awkward adolescent teen chicken 

We reached the Minh Mang tomb and the lady at the ticket counter told us about a cheaper, combined ticket, which worked out great for us since we planned to visit the three places on Sunday. I enjoy how all the structures here have a lot of greenery and water surrounding them. This is also a UNESCO heritage site and had three halls, which were called Blessings Halls. We walked around the water, through the halls, sat on the concrete slabs and promptly jumped up, having been slightly burned. We ended the visit with (overpriced) sugarcane juice, which was compensated by the entertaining reality of two children hanging from a tree next to us and speaking in a language we could understand nothing of. Once outside, Mr. Thang had kindly arranged for pineapples for us, with salt and chili, which now we had no space for. The pineapple was packed into Meagan's bag (which has housed Durian in the past and really may not survive this trip).

Guess who is taller

At Khai Dinh tomb

Our next stop was the Khai Dinh tomb, which was built relatively recently. All the information was in English, Vietnamese and French They had things the emperor had used including tea pots and cups in glass shelves. The work on the wall included very colorful pottery pieces and I enjoyed the vibrancy of the color and the fact that people had not taken out pieces to take home (I saw that at so many Indian monuments, it was such a shame). There was a fabulous throne set up that we were not allowed to take photos of. The stairs to the tomb were rather steep, and good exercise. I can't imagine the royals walking up, I would have demanded to be carried up :).

Steep steps

Khai Dinh tomb

Fiery dragon

We returned home and then after a quick break, went inside the Imperial Citadel finally. Having a ticket in advance allowed us entry from the gate closest to us, yay. The citadel is huge, immense, grand. I don't think we saw more than 60-70% of it. We walked around, inside the lovely red and golden structures, around all the water, looked at the fiery golden dragon, admired some tiles being used for restoration. We saw lots of tourists, some of whom asked us where we were from. We finally found the lo rai (exit) and walked out. We weren't very far from the hotel and walked back. It was was a hot, hot day, perhaps a little hotter than the last few days, and I  came back and collapsed on the bed for a couple of hours. I had forgotten how heat could be.

Inside the citadel

Tiles

The bridge which we
shared with traffic

All in all, it was a nice day, especially since I have been feeling a little antsy and wanting to explore. On Saturday, we walked from the citadel area to the tourist district and stopped at various places en route to explore. It was a good use of the evening. Exploring a city while walking is my favorite way and I haven't managed to do that in Hue. This walk made me very happy. We crossed on one of the bridges with no pedestrian path (so we walked with the traffic, fun!). We then walked into an ice cream shop (but our chocolate ice cream was Durian flavored so a no-no), then walked across one of the two bridges that run from the Imperial City side of the city to the other side (I want to say South). It is a lovely bridge with wide paths for people to walk.

The second colorful bridge

This is the cutest

We were close the entrance of the hotel Saigon Morin when we spotted a market and walked in to explore. It was very lively with hats, fans, beads and bracelets, pebble-based art, juice and fruit stalls and whatnot. I loved the honeybee painting and want to go back and get that. We then wandered into a fancy shop, which had lovely art work, rattan lamps, wooden motorbikes, none of which I could afford. We finally made it to our destination, but we may or may not have stopped at two hotels just to find out their overnight stay rates for fun. Our guesses definitely overestimated the prices. It was a fun, pointless exercise. The World Cup games have definitely made the tourist district come even more alive, with matches being screened at 11 pm and 2 am! Lot's of people converged for the screenings and I learned that Iran has a team.