Are you Viet?
Are you Viet? That's the ubiquitious question that's even more common than "One Dollar, One Hour, Cyclo Ride?". Usually when Amy and I travel or when I have travelled on my own previously, the common question from the touts and the taxi drivers is always, "Japan?" But here in Vietnam, apparently, Amy looks extremely Vietnamese. I think it's pretty funny, but the wife is getting slightly annoyed. Unfortunately, if Amy was able to speak Vietnamese, I think we would get get by a little easier. That's OK, though. It's a little funner trying to get by this way.
Our train ride from Hanoi to Hue wasn't as plush as we expected. It was a four sleeper berth with A/C as we expected, but the train ride was pretty bad. It was slow, bumpy, dirty, and loud. Wasn't very conducive to sleeping. I guess we should have just taken the bus to Hue, but I thought it would be nice to sleep overnight on the train. Unfortunately, trains have yet to catch up in Vietnam.
Hue was the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, back in the day prior to French colonization and the wars against the Japanese, the French, and the Americans. It was a much quieter town than Hanoi. We rented a scooter again and rode around the town. It was still pretty crazy, but with much less people than Hanoi. The city is divided by the Perfume River (didn't smell so fragrant to us. Looked very much like Thai ice tea). The North is encircled by the ruins of the ancient city walls and the South is just like any other Vietnamese developing city. The Citadel had a its own Forbidden City, ala Beijing's, but just much smaller. Plus, the Vietnamese have not kept it up as much as the Chinese. I know its again unfair to compare the two as the two civilizations are dramatically different in terms of scale and history.
After cruising around town by ourselves the first day, we decided to book a motobike tour with Cafe on Thu Wheels. Thu is the cafe owner, bookstore librarian, tour salesperson, and all-around jack of all trades. She's the type of individual that would have thrived during the American war with all the soldiers going through her cafe/bar. She never gave up an oppurtunity to promote a few mugs of Tiger beer at her establishment. Her brother Minh leads the motobike tours. The two of them make the perfect tandem and we can't recommend them highly enough. "We been in Hue long time. We know everything. No need to go to that tomb. Just take picture outside. Save $55,000 Dong. Buy beer at bar." I think the two of them must have said something in those lines at least a dozen times.
Around a dozen backpackers headed out that morning for a cruise around the outskirts of Hue. Some rode their own bikes, other had Vietnamese drivers. We got a little discount on our fare because we only needed one bike and didn't need a driver. Again, we never ride fast enough to do any real harm; unless that is we run smack into a Mack truck (they are mostly Hyundais here). We cruised around the countryside in search of Pagados, a few old army bunkers, and a bunch of ancient burial tombs. Amy and I aren't really into the who tomb and pagoda thing. I think we're done with all that for the remainder of our trip. We're "tombed" out and we've only been to one of them. Nobody got hurt on the ride and nothing all that eventful happened. Just lost of rice paddies and some more rice paddies, sprinkled in with a few, "Are you Viet?"
We ride out tomorrow morning to Hoi An on the 8:30AM Open Tour bus. Tell you more about that tommorrow. Gotta try to keep these blogs a little more short and simpler or else I'm going to lose everyone if I haven't already.
Our train ride from Hanoi to Hue wasn't as plush as we expected. It was a four sleeper berth with A/C as we expected, but the train ride was pretty bad. It was slow, bumpy, dirty, and loud. Wasn't very conducive to sleeping. I guess we should have just taken the bus to Hue, but I thought it would be nice to sleep overnight on the train. Unfortunately, trains have yet to catch up in Vietnam.
Hue was the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, back in the day prior to French colonization and the wars against the Japanese, the French, and the Americans. It was a much quieter town than Hanoi. We rented a scooter again and rode around the town. It was still pretty crazy, but with much less people than Hanoi. The city is divided by the Perfume River (didn't smell so fragrant to us. Looked very much like Thai ice tea). The North is encircled by the ruins of the ancient city walls and the South is just like any other Vietnamese developing city. The Citadel had a its own Forbidden City, ala Beijing's, but just much smaller. Plus, the Vietnamese have not kept it up as much as the Chinese. I know its again unfair to compare the two as the two civilizations are dramatically different in terms of scale and history.
After cruising around town by ourselves the first day, we decided to book a motobike tour with Cafe on Thu Wheels. Thu is the cafe owner, bookstore librarian, tour salesperson, and all-around jack of all trades. She's the type of individual that would have thrived during the American war with all the soldiers going through her cafe/bar. She never gave up an oppurtunity to promote a few mugs of Tiger beer at her establishment. Her brother Minh leads the motobike tours. The two of them make the perfect tandem and we can't recommend them highly enough. "We been in Hue long time. We know everything. No need to go to that tomb. Just take picture outside. Save $55,000 Dong. Buy beer at bar." I think the two of them must have said something in those lines at least a dozen times.
Around a dozen backpackers headed out that morning for a cruise around the outskirts of Hue. Some rode their own bikes, other had Vietnamese drivers. We got a little discount on our fare because we only needed one bike and didn't need a driver. Again, we never ride fast enough to do any real harm; unless that is we run smack into a Mack truck (they are mostly Hyundais here). We cruised around the countryside in search of Pagados, a few old army bunkers, and a bunch of ancient burial tombs. Amy and I aren't really into the who tomb and pagoda thing. I think we're done with all that for the remainder of our trip. We're "tombed" out and we've only been to one of them. Nobody got hurt on the ride and nothing all that eventful happened. Just lost of rice paddies and some more rice paddies, sprinkled in with a few, "Are you Viet?"
We ride out tomorrow morning to Hoi An on the 8:30AM Open Tour bus. Tell you more about that tommorrow. Gotta try to keep these blogs a little more short and simpler or else I'm going to lose everyone if I haven't already.
posted by amy & albert at 8:10 AM
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