A relatively low key day today as I had an urgent need to, shall we say, remain within sprinting distance of the facilities (tmi?), so I stayed behind while the rest of the gang explored some of the ancient sights of Hue. They visited the Imperial Citadel, which was the Imperial City of the Nguyen Dynasty. Only 10 buildings out of 160 remain as the rest were destroyed by the Anti-French Resistance War, and the Vietnam War.
The town of Hue is a nice change of pace from Hanoi. Less traffic and noise, much more small town and peaceful. It has also been a little cooler, particularly in the evenings which makes it nice to walk about. A significant number of dogs look to have free reign throughout the town. Most are the funniest looking things, they seem be a mix of every known breed to man. They don’t appear to be aggressive in any way, they just go about their business which is mostly scavenging for food. Not sure how they survive the scooter traffic though. Most of the tourists here are young Australians and Brits who stay at any one of a large number of local hostels.
Later this afternoon I was feeling better so we went out for coffee. I had my first coconut coffee which is simply strong Vietnamese coffee poured over coconut ice cream. Probably not the best thing to have but it was awfully good. The others had Vietnamese coffee made the traditional way with a stainless steel single cup coffee filter. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant serving Vietnamese and western cuisine. I was the only one to have Vietnamese - pork bun cha, which was the same dish Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama enjoyed together in Hanoi. A really good dish.
Tomorrow morning we hop on the train for the 3 hour journey down the coast to Hoi An where we hope to enjoy some beach time. I’ve read mixed reviews of the Vietnamese rail system so could be an interesting experience.Leer más
Vietnam
