Custom Made

Day 363
Nicole and I were up early, but a more reasonable early to head to Hoi An. Luckily this was only a 4 hour bus ride in another luxury bus. We also decided to just stay put at the hotel that we were dropped off at so we didn't have to wander far in the heat.

Hoi An is know for its well preserved buildings and some nearby Cham ruins. We wearn't here for that. Hoi An is the cheapest place in Asia to get custom made clothing. We asked our hotel to reccomend a place and we were directed about 7 doors down the street. We were greeted by two very friendly women who waited patiently while we spent quite some time sorting through various books and picking out things. Once this was done we picked out fabrics and were measured. We were able to have any changes we wanted made. It was really an incredible amount of fun and we both went a bit overboard.

After some lunch we accidently wandered into a custom made shoe place. We had not meant to do this but somehow each ended up with two pairs.

After resting in our room for a bit we grabbed dinner and then attempeted to discover the nightlife. It wasn't too exciting though so we soon went back to the hotel.

The DMZ

Day 362
We were up at 6am to be ready for our very early morning tour. Hue is best place to visit some of the more interesting Vietnam war sites from. It does make for a very long day though and I could hardly keep my eyes open any time that we were on the bus.

Our first stop was a mountain that had been used as a look out by the Americans who also called it the rock pile. Instead of being barren as it was back then, it is now covered in trees and nearly impossible to climb. After the photo opt we headed to the former American Khe Sahn base. There isn't a whole lot left here, but they have opened a small museum. There was a US helicopter and some rebuilt fortifications. As well as a really ugly monument. The men stationed here suffered heavily and were often without supplies for some time. It was hard to read the info in the museum which referred to the soldiers as the imperial aggressors. We then briefly stopped at the Dia Phon Bridge which had been part of the Ho Chi Minh trail.

The most interesting part of the day was visiting the Vihn Moc Tunnels. The tunnels were right at the border of North and South Vietnam. The sides of the road were speckeld with bomb craters that are turning green with grass. To protect themselves the people in this area moved underground. There were rooms for schools, meetings and indivudual families. There was even a maternity ward. The tunnels were quite large and most of the time I was able to stand up straight. Nicole is about 2 inches taller than me and she had some problems though.

Before heading back to Hue we made a quick stop at a very ugly war memorial. Why are they all so ugly here? The ride back was three hours long. It was almost 7 when we returned. It had been an incredibly long day.

After some dinner at Thu's we found a great bar where they let us pick out the music while we played Majong. We stayed there a little longer than we had planned before heading back.

Hue To Go

Day 361
After a bit of a sleep in we headed down the street to a restaurant that both of our guidebooks had highly recommended called Cafe on Thu Wheels. The food was great and the owner, Thu, was really funny. She told us that if we came back for happy hour she would find boyfriends for both of us.



We didn't end up with boyfriends but we did book an afternoon motorbike tour of Hue with her. It was just the two of us so we were able to move at any pace that we wanted.

Our first stop was the Empirial Enclosure. Much of it was in ruins or in a semi delapidated state. There were lots of plastic dragons everywhere, I don't know why. Hidden within the walls was a beautiful theater. Part of the palace was called the purple palace, only the tennis courts remained and they weren't purple. Towards the end we began to run out of time and had to hurry through the last big. Overall it was nice, but really not all that interesting.

Next up was the wedding cake like Thien mu Pagoda. It was in a beautiful place right next to the river. Behind the main building there were some really creepy looking statues and a fat Buddha. They also had the car that monk Thich Quang Duc used to get to an intersection in Saigon in 1963. When he got out of the car he sat in the middle of the road in the lotis position and set himself on fire to protest some anti Buddist legislation.

Our next stop was some military fortifications built by the French and then used by the Americans during the Vietnam war. The Vietcong used the surronding hills to hide. There wasn't much left of the fortifications but the best part was really the scenery anyway. The mountains were just stunning.

Just a few minutes down the road we arrived at Tu Duc's tomb. He was the emporer during the last half of the 19th century. There were several tombs in the complex and we started with the lesser visited ones of his wives to get away from the package tours. These were a bit shabbier, but looked much more peaceful to me. Tu Duc's tomb was so covered in tourists I wonder if he ever actually got any rest! We had to rush around here a bit as well as we were once again a bit short on time to see it all.

Close by was another temple. I can't remember the name of it and it was quite small. We did learn here that unlike in Thailand wehre most men spend a few years of their lives as monks either as a child or after retirment, in Vietnam being a monk is for life. Most of the monks come from poor families who had very few other options. There was some sort of ceremony going on but the over aggressive tout made me want to skip it and I sat while Nicole went to take a picture.

To get to our next destination we had to go over a very skinny motorbike only bridge. I kept my eyes shut the whole time. I'll definitly be glad when the need to go on motorbikes is just a memory of this trip. At the Japanese bridge there was a local man shamlessly taking a video on his phone of us. Even when I kept my cammera over my face and then pulled my hood all the way over my head he kept going. It was really rude. I think I understand why movie stars are always hiding from the paperazzi. I was going to go up and start filming in his face so that he could see how it felt but I couldn't remember who it had been when we walked past the bridge. Later on Nicole and I realized that we had him in a picture of me.

This was the end of the tour and it took us about 30 minutes to drive back to Thu's. After a small snack and a beer we walked the few doors down to our hotel to relax for a bit. For dinner we went to a local place and I had my asian staple of fried noodles with veggies. I don't care for the way all the bits of animals are used here and I stick to the veggie dishes most of the time.

After dinner we went to The bar in Hue called the DMZ. It really wasn't nearly as great as we had heard and we left just after one game of pool and a couple of drinks.

On the Train Again

Day 360
Around 6 am our train pulled into the station. The plan was to get all the way to Hue (pronounced Way) that night so we headed straight to the other train station in a cab with a too fast meter. Once at the new train station we had to sit there for about 1.5 hours waiting for the window to open up. We thought we could be on a 9 am train, but it turned out that the first train wasn't until 12 pm, at least we could get a sleeper and nap most of the way there.

To kill the time we went to a bakery for a bit and then to KFC when it opened. Nicole fell asleep at the table and they asked us to leave. We did manage to get some good pictures of crazy Hanoi traffic from the top floor. Before catching the train we picked up some snacks.

We lucked out and had our own compartment. I spent most of the 13 hours reading and sleeping in turn. When we arrived to Hue we ignored all the overpriced offered for a tuk-tuk and walked part of the way before getting a taxi. In no time we were at our hotel of choice. Despite sleeping all day we were both still pretty tired and went right to sleep.