This morning we woke up bright and early for a full day ahead of us. I went down to breakfast to find a wide array of foods. Many of the foods were quite interesting and I decided to try out something that looked (and ended up tasting) like Flan. I also got some fruit. I was upset that the bacon here appeared to not be cooked thoroughly. I have really grown to love the bacon here!
We left the hotel and headed towards a small riverboat. We boarded the boat and cruised the Perfume River. The Perfume River is supposed to smell very fragrant and have a greenish blue color. While I could see hints of green in the water, I could not smell the fragrant smell it was supposed to have. However, this could have been because it is January and many flowers are not in bloom. It was neat to spend a little time cruising up the river and seeing the houses that lined the river.
We docked the boat outside of the Thien Mu Pagoda. The Thien Mu Pagoda was large and beautiful. It reminded me of a Pagoda I visited in China last year. We saw many monks walking around while we were there. One monk, several years ago, burned himself to death. They had graphic pictures and his car displayed at the Pagoda. There was also a large bell that is rung on August 14 of every year to celebrate and worship Buddhism. Our guide said that the bell could be heard from miles away. It was really neat to see the architecture here as well.
Next, we headed to the Royal Tombs of Emperor Minh Mang and Emperor Kahi Dinh. The tombs were in two separate spots but had many similarities. The first tomb we visited displayed extravagant and intricate architecture on every building and column. It contained many tiles and ceramics of vibrant colors. The tomb rested at the top of a hill and many steps had to be climbed to reach it. This emperor imposed a tax on his people in order to achieve the money to build for his tomb. Next, we visited a simpler tomb. There were many buildings, with beautiful architecture as well. While the architecture from before seemed to be based off of the French design, this architecture seemed to be based off of the Chinese design. The emperor for the second tomb was much more simpler than the first. His tomb was located inside a concrete structure just beyond a small pond. Where his body is buried remains a mystery, however there is a tomb to symbolize his death. It was really neat to see the tombs and how each emperor from the same dynasty had different personalities and architectural tastes.
On our way to lunch, we stopped at a Garden House. The garden house had some beautiful flowers that surrounded it. We got to see what a typical Vietnamese family did for ancestor worship. This was really interesting to see it actually taking place rather than just learning how it takes place. We then headed to lunch at a café. The food was actually really delicious, comparatively speaking.
We were given a free afternoon. I decided to take a quick nap and then go explore the city with some other people. Right before we left the hotel, the power went out. We later learned that the whole city was having a scheduled ‘power maintenance’. We walked around the black where the hotel was located and had coffee in a nearby nice hotel named The Mercure. I asked my professor why we didn’t get to stay there and he explained that they didn’t have enough available rooms for our group, but that it had been his first choice. We kept walking, and decided we would visit the grocery store we had seen on our cyclo ride the day before. The bridge was much longer than we had remembered but we kept trudging on! We finally arrived at the supermarket. It was arranged much like one in China where each type of thing you need to buy is one separate store. For instance, clothes was one store, food was one store, toiletries was one store, etc. We shopped around the market for a little bit. I walked away with some peanut butter and the Vietnamese equivalent to Werthers. They were both really good!
After visiting the store, we walked back to our hotel. We left with the group for our last dinner in Hue. We arrived at a garden type house. We were led into an enclosed building with glass windows. There were two long tables arranged for dinner. Throughout the course of our meal, we were served food in the shapes of peacocks, phoenixes and other various animals. In retrospect, I think the cooks spent more time on the arrangement of the food than the actual food itself. Needless to say, ‘pork paste’ is not one of my favorite things to eat.
We headed back to the hotel and packed up our bags. We are leaving Hue tomorrow and I don’t think anyone is complaining. It was definitely a rough part of the trip as far as food and lodging goes. However, the places we got to visit and things we got to see were quite interesting and beautiful.
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