Central Vietnam – Hue, Day 1

I have covered quite a bit of country over the past couple of days.  I think it was four days ago when I flew to the central city of Da Nang…a popular place in American War movies.  Once there I realized that I was a couple of hours away from where I wanted to be so I hired a car and driver to transport me to the city of Hue.  Hue was a very cool place, and I saw loads while there. 

I couldn’t believe how nice the hotel was for the price; I paid $15 and hired a room for the first two nights because they were booked on my third night….a night from hell which I’ll soon write about…

As soon as I arrived, I dropped my bags and quickly headed to a travel agent before they closed for the night.  I went to the second one I saw because there was a REALLY good looking girl working there.    I booked passage for the City Tour and left on the tour bus the next morning.  While at the agent, I was offered a ‘nice bus’ for 12$ or a ‘not so nice bus’ for $10.  I asked what the difference was, and I was told that the nice one is new and has aircon.   I told them that I also wanted to go on the DMZ tour the second day; the man told me that I would have to pay $12 for the second day because only the nice bus was used for that trip.  Ok…I paid…was leery at the nice and bad bus situation, but I was very excited to go on these trips.  I have always been quite facinated by tunnel rats during wars…the Vietnamese did it but so did the Germans.  The Jerrys built under ground highways in several parts of Europe.  I, along with friend, actually located the entrance to an underground motorpool in northern Italy…but that is another story.

When the tour bus picked me up the next day, I looked around at the bushes to see if there were Bollywood camera crews playing a joke on me; the bus looked like something which was probably new when it would take American G.I.’s to their R & R destinations during the war.  Nonetheless, I went.  Unfortunately I will not be able to post photos until a later date, but these are the locations we went to on that first day:  Minh Mang Tomb, Khai Dinh Tomb, Tu Duc Tomb, The Old Citadel, Thien Mu Pagoda, some boat fishing village, and a place where incense is made.  While there were many cool things that we saw, I was most facinated by the making of incense…most likely because of the continuous movement of the maker and a touch of ADD on my part.  haha 

The lady had a clump of a starch like substance, a pile of spice, and a load of sticks.  She would press the stick into the clump as she slowly turned the stick, all the while rubbing more and more of the spice into the starch like substance.  I’ll post photos of that later.

While on the trip, I was asked to dress like a king and sit on a throne at one of the sites.  Always needing to be the center of attention, I quickly accepted.  haha!  A lovely looking Asian chick who was on my bus with me said, "You make a fine king!"  I replied, "I can never be a king without a queen…are you free?"  The flirtation flame was lit, and we carried on for the duration of the day.  Turns out she and her parents were evacuated by the Americans during the war and relocated to California.  She is quite lovely.  I must admit that one of the things that turned me on about her was the fact that she just exited the ‘nunery’.  It’s the first time in a very long time that I actually found myself attracted to a woman who is the same age as me!  I gave her my email, and we have continued carrying on electronically. 

When we returned to the city, I went to the travel agent to complain about the tour guide.  Turns out the reason he didn’t know shit about the sites was because his day job is that of a receptionist at a hotel!   haha!  They called on him because he can speak English.  I was assured that the next day would be better…

Mosquitos are biting the hell out of my legs so I’m stopping this for now.  I have since left the place I’m writing about and am in the town of Hoi An.  I’ll write more tomorrow…