28 September Hue to Hoi An

We were talking to our guide, Cuong, about the two child policy that the Vietnamese government has imposed and the potential for problems in the future as has happened in China. He said that Vietnam is already an aging country but the most shocking thing he said was that girls are being kidnapped and sold in China to provide wives for the men who have no potential for marriage. Parents now wait outside school gates to pick up their children: something that was never even thought of before kidnapping became a real fear.

Most of us chose to go up the Perfume River to the Thien Mu pagoda which is one of the oldest pagodas in Hue built in 1601, and then taxis to the Citadel.


The Citadel covered an area 10kms square and the inner Forbidden Purple City was inhabited by the Nguyen dynasty emperors and their mandarins and concubines. Constructtion of this moated Citadel began in 1804. At this time Hue was the Imperial City of Vietnam. The area was heavily bombed by the Americans in the Tet Offensive in 1968 when the Viet Cong took up positions in the complex. Signs of opulence are everywhere in the buildings and gardens. Luckily the French photographed life in the Citadel and there is a display of these photos as well as the family crockery, teapots, etc. The photographs appear to be mostly from the 1930s and show a very young emperor with his advisors and servants. The boat provided an opportunity for shopping with several sellers on board. We saw our first elephant in this place but sadly it was tied by the back leg. There was a lot of wood stacked around where he was so I assume he was a working elephant.




Once back in Hue Meryl and I walked to the Mandarin cafe which is owned by Mr Cu, a man whose hobby is photography. He has galleries in Italy, France, and Germany. His photos capture traditional life in Vietnam as well as landscapes. He gave us all an autographed postcard.

We were puzzled to be told we would have to take our shoes off on the afternoon bus to Hoi An ??? but when we lined up to board we could see that instead of seats there were bunks which we soon discovered were not built for Western bodies. It was a four hour bus ride which was broken by a 20 minute stop at a beach half way there.
The journey took us over quite a high pass where the mountains seem to go right down to the sea. The highest pass has now been replaced with a tunnel through the mountain. Through Danang which is a very long city and not very pretty. Greg Norman and many others are building resorts here.

That night in Hoi An Cuong took us to the Bale Well where we were taught to roll spring rolls. It became hilarious when one of the waitresses took a fancy to Russell and kept feeding him and holding his drink up to his mouth. Mot, hai, bah yo!!! the toast for drinking.

Hoi An is a UNESCO listed Heritage Site and has an old city which is blocked off to cars and motorbikes. In this old city were many tailors who make clothes and shoes to measure. We went into a couple of these places and it was nothing short of overwhelming - fabrics to pick, styles to decide and measurements to be taken and people everywhere. This is a delightful place with a population of only 30 000.