June 18- Hoi An, Vietnam

Sorry we haven't posted in a few days, but the computers here are not as good as my Apple IIGS. Anyways, we had two wonderful days in Hue and we have now been in Hoi An for two more days.

Day 1 in Hue: After taking an overnight bus from Hanoi, we arrived in Hue bright and early and had no trouble finding a clean place to stay for $6 a night. We headed out and trekked across the Perfume River to the old Citadel in town. The old part of Hue (the former capital of the Nguyen dynasty that ruled Vietnam for several generations up through the nineteenth century) is surrounded by an ancient rampart and moat. Inside the big Citadel, there are several smaller enclosures, denoting areas reserved for the emperor and his retinue. We explored the newly restored temples (restored with the help of the Polish government, of all people) and saw many others that remained decimated from the "American War."


We even got to go into the Forbidden Purple City, which was reserved solely for the use of the emperor, his numerous wives, and countless concubines. It's good to be the king. Unfortunately, very little remains of this portion of the Citadel today (although, who is to say what was in there before?)


After leaving the imperial enclosure, we found the Hue School of Fine Arts, Vietnam's premiere art university. It had an idyllic location, right in the heart of the Citadel beneath the banyan trees.

That night the tropical sun caught up with Jillian. What's a trip to paradise without a little heat stroke? We went to bed early after Jillian lounged under a blanket of wet t-shirts for a bit.

Day 2 in Hue: Feeling perfectly refreshed (don't worry Grandma), we hopped on a small tour boat to take us up the Perfume River to visit some tombs, pagodas, and various tourist traps. The most impressive tomb was that of Tu Duc, and he was not evern buried there. The temples and monuments sprawled over several acres of lush gardens and ponds full of lotus blossoms. Amazingly enough, Tu Duc had 104 wives, oodles of concubines and NO offspring. Something tells us that there was something wrong with HIS "tu duc."


The most lavishly decorated tomb was that of Khai Dinh, which was also erected most recently, in the 1920's. Situated up on a hill, and only accessible by a small dirt road, all of the rooms of this tomb and temple were covered in mosaics created with glass, pottery shards, and precious stones. It was spectacular! Even the canopy over the site of his burial was an ornate mosaic.


Not to make you too nervous, but some of the tombs were a few kilometers from the river, and we had to take "motos" to get there. This means paying two dollars round trip (it's extortion, really) to sit on the back of some dude's Chinese "same same* moped. Most people in Vietnam, in the cities and the country, use motos as their primary mode of transportation. We have seen as many as five people on one (again, they do have Vietnamese sized tushies, but still...) and we even saw a woman breast feeding her baby while riding on the back of a moto. To make things even more insane, there are no traffic lights to be found in this country, and the lines on the road (if there are any) are a mere suggestion.

Our first day in Vietnam, the traffic was a little terrifying, to say the least, and we didn't quite know how we would cross the street. We just stood on the sidewalk bewildered for a few minutes, as a sea of motos criss-crossed in front of us. It wasn't until we saw a 4 foot tall, 95 year old woman step off the sidewalk and walk straight into the traffic that we mustered up the courage to follow her. The key to crossing the street is to walk at a steady pace, and the oncoming traffic will (hopefully) be able to avoid you. We scooted right behind her, and managed to make it across in her shadow. It was the first time an old lady helped us across the street. We have since gotten much more confident crossing the street, but Jillian often has to repeat the mantra, "Slow and steady, like the old lady."

*("Same same" is the term the Vietnamese use for knockoff, and everything here is "same same" or "cheap cheap" as they also like to tell us. Power, our guide on the bike trip, explained the difference between Honda motos and Honga motos; Honga being the Chinese same same brand. All of the motos around here are Honga, even if they have the Honda nameplate.)

Back to our second day in Hue. After returning to town from our boat trip, we found a great vegetarian restaurant and tried their specialty, the "deer." Whatever it really was, it was great! After that, we perused the galleries in town. Hue is known as the arts and culture capital of the country, and most of the up and coming artists in Vietnam have their galleries there. We found a gallery featuring the work of two twin brothers, whose work has been shown all over the world (and naturally, they have also brought it to Chelsea, NYC). We really liked their work and they seemed to be really cool guys. Jillian had a small crush on the pearly blue Vespa that one of them drove.

Early the next morning, we hopped on a bus bound for Hoi An and we were there before lunch time.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari