Hue – Chocoholic
After our emotional goodbye to the gorgeous family at Diem Diem, we crawled onto the 8am bus with a heavy heart. Nothing we’d seen or done so far in Vietnam could come close to that; we were also in some kind of clothes-frenzy hangover. Luckily we were surrounded by friends on the bus; Rich had caught back up with us again, and also with us were Elaine and Red, an Irish couple that Doireann had met earlier.
The bus was crowded, but at least we had a seat each. However, when we stopped for a lunch break, I managed to jinx it with my very special kind of magic, and it refused to start again. In a spectacularly sexist display (but for once I wasn’t complaining – it was hot out there), all the men on the bus push-started it until it suddenly revved up. “Hmm, sounded like the starter motor” I mused, with all the sageness of one whose starter motor started going just before I sold my car. To my mum. And yes, I feel guilty!
Following this, the driver evidently decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to turn the airconditioning back on (and who am I to question his wisdom?), so we suffered for the rest of the journey in the baking heat, fanning ourselves silly. The heat didn’t let up when we arrived in Hue – it felt by far to be the hottest place that I’d been to. After wandering around for a while, we all managed to get rooms in the same hotel. Tired from the early start and the bus journey, we didn’t do much more that afternoon and evening.
Except for one momentus happening. We went for a meal at the DMZ Cafe, just round the corner from our hotel, and after an average spaghetti, I made a move that was to become legendary. I ordered chocolate mousse. I was only after a chocolate fix, but I got the most delicious dessert – rich, very chocolatey, and plentiful. So plentiful that there was enough to go round the table and give everyone a taste, and soon everyone was swooning along with me. A happy end to the day.
The next day, seven of us – Doireann, Rich, Elaine, Red, me and another couple whose names I can never remember – had decided to hire a private boat to take us down the Perfume River. Not as swish as it sounds, it cost us less than $2 each and I guess you get what you pay for! Having been stung on badly organised tour buses before, we thought this would be the best way to go – we were promised complete control of where we went and stopped. Hah. Fools. As soon as we got on, they were shoving menus in our faces, telling us to pick what we were to eat for our (not included in the price) lunch. Whatever we were choosing, though, wasn’t available, or would cost more to order. Doireann, Rich and I decided not to bother, knowing that we’d get better value on land. We then had a minor altercation with the boat driver (what’s the name? I know there’s a better name than ‘boat driver’), who tried telling us where we were going to stop. We put him straight, though, and told him to take us straight to the tomb of Minh Mang, who ruled Vietnam from 1820 to 1840.
The tomb was spectacularly big. It was surrounded by lakes and various pagodas, and the king himself is buried under a big hill towards the back. It’s a very peaceful resting place – definitely fit for a king! The architecture there is very much in the Chinese style, and it’s hard not to notice the Chinese influences here in Vietnam now I’ve seen that. I could have been back in Beijing. Even all the colours are just like the Chinese classical styles.
Our next stop was at the Thien Mu Pagoda. This was a surprisingly political site during the 1960s and 1970s – it was from this Pagoda that the monk Thich Quang Duc came from – he became immortalised by the world’s media as he burned himself alive in Saigon to protest against the President Ngo Dinh Diem. Apparently the car that he drove himself to Saigon in is usually on display here – however, we couldn’t see it, as the Pagoda is currently being renovated.
Running from a sudden shower, we got back onto the boat for our final stop, the Citadel. My only previous experience of a Citadel is attending a couple of concerts in the St Helens one a few years ago – now I’m a veteran of Citadels, I can safely say that St Helens is nothing like Hue. The Hue Citadel is huge – the perimiter is 10km all round. Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam, and the Citadel is a big reminder of that time. Or it would be, had it not been blown to bits by various invaders and wars. It’s a sad legacy of the wars, I guess, as it’s possible to imagine how spectacular it would have been in its heyday. The Purple Forbidden City, like its Beijing counterpart, was reserved for royalty to flounce about in – regular commoners wouldn’t have got near.
We didn’t have long enough to explore the Citadel, as we had to dash back for yet another night bus. Rather than walk back, we took our first trips in a cyclo (I’d taken a few in India, it was Doireann and Rich’s first time). We spent the whole journey creasing up laughing and taking photos of each other – I was perched between Doireann’s legs, and Rich, in a separate cyclo, somehow managed to look like an invalid – the cyclo looked like one of those old fashioned wheelchairs, a bit like the one used by Clara in ‘Heidi’.
We’d managed to leave enough time for dinner before the bus arrived, and this time everyone ordered their own chocolate mousse. This was only marred by Rich noticing the bus waiting for us down the road. Elaine went over to investigate, and was told they’d drive round the block, then collect us – she came back looking not too happy, as the bus was chocka already. Panicking, and yet not wanting to jeopardise our chocolate mousse (priorities!), we got them to put it in polystyrene boxes for us to take away. And let me tell you now – sweating, carrying a heavy backpack, and trying to eat a chocolate mousse that’s rapidly melting – even the most accomplished multi-tasker would have trouble with that one. I only wish I’d have taken a photo of us.
By the time the bus turned up again, we’d finished our chocolate mousse. We were delighted, though, to notice that this was a different bus. It was far from full, so we spread out over the back seats, looking forward to what promised to be, for once, a relatively pleasant overnight journey – we were with friends, the aircon was working, we had lots of room.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Things never turn out like you expect…
Tags: Travel, Vietnam
Suzanne
Hi Suze, it’s great to see you’re back blogging again. Take-away chocolate mousse??? I think this might catch on in the UK.
Love & miss you lots
Mum