DID: Slept in, then headed into town for breakfast (pho). More on that in ATE. Meandered through town, generally heading for the river. GnR were a huge attraction, they received lots of waves, high-5’s, handshakes and smiles, even a few handfuls of fruit!
Found ourselves at the dragon boat marina. $22 gets you a private boat and a 3-hour tour along the Perfume River, stopping at two tombs and a pagoda. Later learned that it’s 3 hours on the water, not including the stops! Our boat was run by a husband-wife team and their four-year-old son (the youngest of their 5 children, and they also have four grandchildren) The little one was napping for the whole trip out, but the way back he + GnR had a good time playing with cars and doing somersaults on the boat deck. I know now why so many people have been amazed at Rhys’ size, he and the 4 year old were pretty much the same height.
First stop was “at” the Tu Duc Tomb. Once we got off the boat we were told that the temple was actually a few kilometers away. Solution - they’ve got people there who will take you on the back of their motorbike. We weren’t totally comfortable with Rhys on a bike so Jason stayed behind with him while Gavin and I took a ride. Gavin was so excited (and so was I, let’s be real!) to ride the bike. He said afterwards that ‘it was a little bit scary but mostly fun’, and I’d agree. We didn’t see any other cars until we were just in front of the tomb, and the driver kept it at an easy speed across the hilly road.
Could have easily spent a few hours walking around the tomb and grounds. Was very beautiful in a not-restored-but-very-well-maintained-and-respected kind of way. But didn’t want to keep Jason and Rhys waiting so we kept it short and sweet before hopping the bike back to the boat.
While we were away the wife bought and cleaned a fish, and started cooking it on a little stove hidden in a cupboard on the floor at the back of the boat. Smelled wonderful, starting to think that this boat doubles as their home.
Next stops were the Dien Hon Chen and the Thien Mu Pagoda. Both thankfully right at the pier, no motorcycles required! Pagoda was easily my favorite stop, it was beautiful in and of itself but also the views from the grounds of the river and mountains were really something.
Returned to Hue just as the sun was setting so got to see the city lighting up as we approached – perfect timing! No dinner spot in mind so just wandered for awhile. Eventually found a bakery with pastries for breakfast, and the woman there led us to a restaurant around the corner. We apparently were in the ‘shoe district’ of Hue – shoe stores everywhere. Can also see the French influence here, shoes are displayed just like stores in France (and Italy too) – lined up in the shopfront windows for you to examine (but not touch!) Which brings me to another observation – finding a manicure in Vietnam appears to be like finding shoes in Italy. All the good stuff is exported. After a good 3-4 hours of walking around this city, I have seen all of two nail salons, and they both looked pretty sad.
Got back to the hotel just in time for a quick swim before the pool closed. Rhys jumped in and said ‘nice’ – and I couldn’t agree more.
ATE: Brunch at Pho Saigon. Gavin said full stop this is his favorite kind of noodle soup, he loves it and he wants Jason to make it at home. There you have it! Rhys and I had an omelet and a baguette. I’d say there was also some love happening for this dish because Rhys asked for us to order a second plate. :)
Snack at Phuong Nam. Café, bookstore and artisan gallery along the river (and very acceptable toilet facilities!) The boys had fresh lemonade (with lemongrass and ginger, wow), Jason and I had iced coffees, everyone had a chocolate cream puff. Rhys took a sip of my drink, got a big smile and said ‘coffee!’ The boy knows what he’s talking about. Really nice place to stop, I even had great success in the shop with a few handcrafted bamboo bowls and a vase.
Dinner at Hung Vuong Inn. Restaurant was packed when we arrived. We had crispy noodles with chicken and shrimp (amazing), pork spring rolls (double amazing), crispy pancake filled with shrimp, chicken and bean sprouts (a bit heavy but the flavors were right – prefer the version we used to get in London), sweet and sour chicken (not great), fries (not as French as we would have liked!) and banana-chocolate and honey-lemon crepes for dessert (ooh la la). Very decent meal. Mixed feelings as we left though – owner presented GnR with a roll of Oreo cookies to take home, meanwhile staff at the cash register hid some of the money Jason gave him and then tried to claim he’d underpaid.
SLEPT: Bedtime fable tonight talked about why the Vietnamese refer to themselves as ‘the dragon and fairy’s grandchildren’. I think bit of background might have been useful in order to understand this story – might have to look into this tomorrow!
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