After exploring the market in Hue yesterday and trying some delicious new fruit that Yosha grew up on in Sri Lanka, it was a bit of a lazy day.
Today we had a fun-filled day on a city tour of Hue, where we checked out the citadel, which was built in around 1805 (and a lot of it destroyed during the American War in 1968); the Phu Mong Garden House Village, a private garden; the Thien Mu pagoda, which was built over 400 years ago; and three tombs: the minh mang tomb, the tu duc tomb and the khai dinh tomb. These tombs were the final resting places for a number of emperors who lived around the 19th and 20th century. I thought that the Khai Dinh tombs were the absolute coolest because they had an awesome gothic feeling to them.
From there we took a dragon boating tour along the perfume river and walked about in the rain in an attempt to find this Japanese restaurant that closed down. We ended up having dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was probably our first failed food event...we had prawns, squid, rice and some veggies. The squid looked really raw and not sugar coated like we have back home! As much as I came into this trip wanting to eat some hardcore stuff I think it's better in theory than in practice...and squid isn't nearly as hardcore as you can get for food in Asia! We did manage to find some amazing mille-feuilles dessert at a French bakery called La Boulangerie française which trains underpriviledged youth in Vietnam to become bakers and chefs in fancy hotels and restaurants in Vietnam. So....good for me, good for Vietnam, everyone wins!
Generally our food experiences in Vietnam (for lunch and dinner, anyways) are the following: we show up at some food cooking place on the street, pull up some kiddie chairs, and they make us food. it usually involves rice and meat of some kind. we don't always know what we are eating, but it's always delicious and cheap! like yesterday in the market we had rice, noodles, green veggies of some kind, some fish and some kind of meat, maybe chicken...for $1. The beer in Hue is especially cheap. I am a huge fan of their Huda beer. A big bottle of it at the café across the street is less than $0.50. The Dutch alarm is on full-time here! :)
The weather in Hue has been the same since we got here yesterday morning...cold, damp, wet, dreary...but at least we can walk around in light jackets and sandals!
Some random photos for your viewing pleasure. Clockwise from the top left: fruit in the market - Yosha has introduced me to rabutan, mangosteen, sugar apple, and we picked up some dragon fruit too. (this will hopefully slow down the onset of scurvy, which is bound to happen on our current diets of meat, more meat, rice, noodles, and deep fried magic like deep fried bananas that we picked up along the way today!); one of the ladies serving us delicious street food; in front of the Thien Mu pagoda; and a photo of the Khai Dinh tomb.
Tomorrow morning we are taking a cooking class, and from there we are off to Hoi An for Christmas. I am really looking forward to having clothes made in Hoi An and to do some shopping! I likely won't post until Christmas day so I hope that Santa Claus is good to you! :)
M xoxo
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