Vietnam Part II - Hué and Hoi An

More pictures of Hué and Hoi An can be found in picasa!


Hué

Hanoi was left behind at 6 pm in the evening. We knew that the ride to Hué, to our first stop on the way to south would be a long one, but not like this. It was supposed to be a 14 hours ride over the mountains, but after a breakdown for two hours at night and for four hours in the morning, it took us 20 hours.

So we ended up losing the first day in Hué. After founding a place to crash for 4 USD per person per night we went for a proper dinner. The receptionist suggested us a close by coffee house just around the corner on a bit shady and closed alley. And so we found Nina's Coffee Family Restaurant, where we ended up enjoying all of our meals in Hué because it offered the best Vietnamese cuisines this far we had tasted. And the warmest and friendliest atmosphere.

After the dinner we wandered around a bit in Hué, we crossed the river dividing the city in to a old part with Citadel and the Forgotten Purple City, and the new city to find a supermarket and a food market. We bought some funky fruits and cheap local white and red wines for approximately three dollars per bottle.

We walked back across the beautifully lighted bridge and sat down by the river shore. Awhile later an older lady approached us and offered a ferry ride along the river for 30 minutes for just two dollars total. The ride was nice, we enjoyed the wine, even though the local wine was a bit more of an spirit like than wine like. While on the boat, we also saw lots of lanterns been lighted up and released to float along the river to respect the lives lost to the river. It was beautiful.

After finishing our wines we stumbled back to the hotel from where we continued to a bar next door to chill for a while. We played some billiard, cards etc. while enjoying some big local Huda beers for half a dollar per bottle. Not a bit later than midnight we found our way across the corner back to our hostel, but it was a shame, I've been having this terrible coughing for a while now and it doesn't seem to get better even though I'm treating it now with Chinese herbal cough syrup. So it took almost till 4 am to fall asleep and I already woke up at 7 am because of started coughing again.

The day for tourism had arrived. We still ended up staying in bed till 9 am, even though we rested on the open bus for 20 hours it really wasn't that refreshing. I also had to respond to some emails and write some applications due to student welfare back in Finland, annoying that they know all the facts but they still don't wanna check them before harassing. But it seems that everything is okay now.

The Hué is the Buddhist center of whole Vietnam and it actually has more than hundreds of Pagodas, Temples and ceremonial Tombs to visit. All the cheap tours had already started around 7 to 8 am so we had no choice but to try to look for something by ourselves. We ended up starting from total of 40 USD to paying only of 22 USD for the whole day with a driver and car cruising us around. We visited the old Thu Than Pagoda, Tomb of Tu Duc, Tomb of Khai Dinh, Thien Mu Pagoda and the Old Citadel. Unfortunately we arrived to the last stop, the Citadel just a bit late so we had to settle to see it just from the outside. Which was actually okay for me, and to add, our driver had told us that the citadel is just a bigger version of the other tombs and pagodas.

While visiting the Tumb of Tu Duc we found and bought small satire and humour book about Vietnamese folktales with my Spanish friend. After the driver dropped us at the citadel, we walked back to the city and visited the fruit market to get some for midnight snack and for breakfast. We got back to the hotel around 6 pm where we rested for awhile before going to next door chill out at the club and to play some billiard and cards, and to listen some nice music.

We had a open bus to catch at 8 am, for our misfortune it wasn't the same kind sleeping bus, but rather a normal one. Luckily the ride from Hué to Hoi An was only four hours.

Hoi An

Hoi An was supposed to be a place for relaxation after almost 10 hectic days traveling. We arrived at noon and the bus dropped us directly at some hotel - probably paying some commissions or something for the bus company because we saw it happen on daily basis. It seemed expensive but luckily I had read from the Lonely Planet that the hotel actually had a dorm room for four people for 5 USD per person, but just if you know to ask for it, they don't offer it otherwise.

The hotel had a free drop off service and they drove us to the city center close to the river dividing it into small almost like islands. Close to the shore we enjoyed a proper lunch followed by a afternoon of walking around the city and the markets and enjoying the peaceful and calm riverside. We had some Vietnamese coffee which is actually very nice and a must to taste if any of you ever travel to Vietnam, and we also found a nice place with lots of traveler recommendations and stories written by customers all over the world, quite a lot actually in Finnish too. The place was called Mr. Kim's Café des Amis.

Before going to bed we played some cards and finally found our banana monster. My Spanish friends bananas had been mauled by a tiny mouse running around back on forth on his bed - some good laughs.

We also started to build up a horror story by everyone continuing the story with one sentence, and actually it got a bit scary with all the cold and rainy weather with squeaky windows clattering. After that we calmed ourselves with some Vietnamese folktales from the book we had bought.

We woke up at 6 am to book a day trip to My Son (pronounced as Me Sun) temple 55 kilometers away from the town. My Son means and translates to a beautiful mountain. The temple had been bombed by the USA military back in Vietnam war because of false intelligence stating that the Vietcong troops were hiding there. And so the beautiful temples turned into an amazing ruins that they are now. The temple is said to resemble the temple of Angkor in Cambodia but in a smaller scale of course. The temple was built in 400 AD by Java people and was used to worship Shiva, the main god, the god of creation and destruction, man and female in the same body. Also later the temple was combined to Buddhism with lotus flower shape pedestals and pillar decorations to prove it.

The temple was found by French explorers in mid 19th century. As one can notice from some of the pictures that none of the statues, except on has a head, it is because the French people cut all the heads and sent them to Louvre. From some of the pictures it's possible to notice the exceptional work of the Java people. The walls that look bright and new are actually over thousand years old, and the bad looking ones changing color only 25 years. Even nowadays, no one has been able to reconstruct the way how Java people built these temples and bricks without cement and whats the secret that keeps the tiles in perfect condition.

While visiting the temples my friend compared and quoted me as a Shiva, the perfect being, beginning and end. He also told that he had actually talked about me to our Norwegian friend previously that I'm one of the best persons he knows. Also the girls said that I'm one of the most patient person they know. It was really nice to hear that my friends thing so highly of me. I thanked them, and of course we smiled and laughed a bit with consensus.

After the temples we were dropped off to a river location, from where we took a boat ride with lunch back to the Hoi An on the way visiting one craftsmanship island village. After the temple ruins tour we were ready for the 12 hours overnight journey to Nha Trang.

Ps. I really liked Hoi An. The calm, relaxed atmosphere with streets only for walking, small street side food stalls everywhere. Actually in Hoi An we tried quite a few things from the streets like banana slice pancakes, special cakes made out of soy beans, coconut, mango etc., and also deep fried bread with minced rice-meat mixture. To highlight, the best was the hand made street spring rolls, I will hold a dinner party like that when I settle back in Finland!