Hue, Hoa's, and Hoi An

Sorry it has been almost a week since I posted to the blog. I have been moving a lot and the few small towns I have been in have either had very slow internet connections or no connection at all! This is just the way things work outside the US.

I left Hanoi by myself. Mark stayed behind waiting for his Vespa, which he bought, to be fixed up so that he could ride it south across Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City. This was his replacement for the two of us not getting a jeep together. He is going to travel by vespa and train the equivalent distance of Weed California to LA California on the thing. He then wants to ship it to England and sell it for a profit. He tried to talk me into it, but I decided against it.

I arrived in Hue after a 15 hour excruciating bus journey through the night that included at least a dozen near crashes. The road rules on the highway at night are even scarier than those in the cities. Having gotten almost no sleep the first thing I did was pass out in a hotel room for about 4 hours. Upon feeling refreshed I set out to explore the Citadel and the Forbidden Purple City. The Nguyen Lords ruled from within its walls from about 1800 until the french took official control of most of Vietnam. The main entry gate to the Forbidden City is shown below. There are only a few large structures left because of the heavy damage the compound took during the American War (Vietnam War). It is still possible to find bullet holes in the masonry walls.




On my way out of the Imperial grounds I met Joanne. It was one of those we were both lost staring at our guidebooks on the street corner conversation starters. She is a Aussie now, but was born in the US and grew up in Paris because her father was an Australian diplomat. She has owned and operated a couple pet shops and after having worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for years she sold it all and has now set out around the world for a year. She is at the very beginning of her journey that is going to span SE Asia, South America, North America and Europe. That night we went out for drinks with a few other people we met that afternoon and some other that I had originally met in Hanoi. It turned out that everyone at the table had booked tours to go see the tombs of the Nguyen Lords, but we had all booked with different agencies.


Tours to the royal tombs are taken by boat up the Perfume River which flows through the middle of Hue. There is an aroma to the river, but I would definitely not describe it as any sort of perfume. The first place I stopped was at the Thien Mu Pagoda. It was built in 1601 and is the oldest pagoda in Hue. This pagoda is also famous because the venerable monk Thich Quang Duc, who was from the pagoda, travelled to Saigon and on June 11, 1963 burned himself to death to protest the repression of buddhists by President Diem. The photos rocked the world. Needless to say, his home pagoda is now firmly entrenched on the tourists circuit.

After visiting the pagoda the tour moved on to the royal tomb of Tuc Duc. By this point in the day, 9 am, it was already insufferably hot and really humid. It was probably the worst day of the tip to that point. At the tomb I bumped into Joanne again and on a spur of the moment idea I asked her if she wanted to ditch the tour with me, catch a motorbike ride back to Hue and jump on a bus for Danang and then scoot a little farther down the coast to Hoa's Place. She said yes, and off we went. When you are traveling, making decisions on the spur of the moment is a great strategy.

Hoa's Place is just south of Danang and right next to the Marble Mountains. It is run by, surprise surprise, Hoa, who might be the only Vietnamese person I have met that would turn away business if it was causing too much stress. He speaks great english and talks about chilling out and taking it easy like he was from Hawaii. All the drinks are available for anyone to grab and you are on the honor system to mark it down in a book he keeps on the counter. Dinner is family style at 7 and everyone who is staying there eats together. The best part about the place is that it is 100 m from Non Nuoc Beach, a massive expanse of sand that it virtually deserted except for a few small fishing boats. It won't be this way long however as the government has just built a big new road that screams massive resort development. It is very sad to say, but I think that the serenity of the place will be lost within 5 years. So go now!


Joanne and I spent two nights at Hoa's and then headed farther down the coast to Hoi An, a town famous for its tailors. Having already bought a suit, I deiced to have my favorite board shorts copied. I am having three copies made at $8 a piece. This is a great deal when you think about how much they cost in Hawaii.

Hoi An is also famous because of the Chinese Merchant Houses and Assembly Halls that have been put on to the UNESCO World Heritage list. There is also a summer festival going on and so in the evenings the old part of the city closes down to motorbike traffic and the street lights are turned off and replaced with giant paper lanterns. Everyone comes out and wanders up and down the street, eats sweet pastries, and has drinks at the various sidewalk cafes and bars.

I also went to My Son, some incredible Cham Ruins near Hoi An today, but I will save that post for tomorrow.