Day 218, Hue, Vietnam

At the mausoleum 

An exciting day tour on the back of a motorcycle today! What a lot of fun. We were met at the hotel at 8.30 by a group of men with their motorbikes and the keys went into a helmet, for us to pick one out which bike we were going on. 

The motorcycle tour 

We stopped at numerous places, including a country village with a wonderful market full of the freshest meat and fish you can imagine. The chickens were there, ready to be plucked and the fish was still jumping about in the bucket. No preservatives to be found here! 

The women were cutting up the meat with huge, sharp cleavers, weighing the vegies on simple scales, guarding their chickens. They also sold nuts from the Areca Palm tree, known as Betel nuts, which are chewed, after being combined with slaked lime and a betel leaf. They give a high, and a buzz equivalent to 6 cups of coffee. They also stain the teeth black and the lips red, which was until recently regarded as highly attractive in women

A nice view over the Perfume River

Other stops included learning how incense is made, a tiger & elephant arena (where they were made to fight to death), the Thien Mu Pagoda and the King's mausoleum. The mausoleum was so interesting. This king ruled for 37 years, didn't manage to father an heir, which depressed him severely. He was very preoccupied with building his mausoleum and spent many afternoons walking around the building site and even had a small island there where he would go 'hunting for wildlife'. After all this preparation, he was never actually buried here, as he was so paranoid about successive kings raiding his tomb (as he had done) for treasure and to disrespect the dead, that he arranged to be buried elsewhere. The 200 men who knew where, as they were involved in preparing the site, where beheaded to ensure the secrecy was secured.

Lake at the mausoleum 

A very fun but also informative day, topped off with a super coffee (a 'proper' latte) and later dinner out with Samantha, Cheyenne and Brad to an excellent little restaurant. Here I bumped into a couple who I first met at the airport coming into Hanoi, then on my second night out for dinner they came into the same restaurant and again tonight they walked into the same restaurant. What are the chances!