Hue

Old pagoda

Incense

My new friend and I getting ready to go off to negotiate a boat trip

Thien Mu Pagoda

Friendly boat guy

 

The Citadel

Bridge all lit up

Beautiful bridge

Hue is the former Imperial Capitol of the Nguyen Dynasty. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was heavily damaged by bombing during the French and American War but some of the old Citadel exists.
We were lucky to show up during the middle of a huge every-other-year festival. A big deal with lots of music and dance groups from all over Asia performing at a bunch of different venues all over town. A really exciting event for the city ( and for us.) The night before we left they lit up the bridge over the Perfume River with thousands of buckets filled with paraffin. It was really beautiful.
One of the best things we did was take a trip down the river to the Thien Mu Pagoda. We had no intention of doing this, in fact we had been hassled by so many hawkers about it we we're resolved not to give in but sometimes you just don't know how things will evolve.
We started the day out by crossing the river to check out an older neighborhood. See a few old pagodas, maybe get a bite to eat. Mike had to pee so we found a "café" down the end of an alley. It was really just someone's house with a beer sign over it but they had a toilet and cold beer so we sat down while the family stared at us. Someone must have made a call because the next thing we knew we were joined by a guy who spoke decent English and then a few minutes later by his wife who whizzed up on her scooter. They were quizzing us about what sights we had seen in Hue. Then we were chastised because we hadn't been on the river or seen the famous pagoda.
"You haven't been on a trip to Hue unless you have done this beautiful trip."
Of course they knew someone with a boat and could arrange the whole thing for us.
I caught on pretty quick to the fact that they were trying to set this up. Mike was a few steps behind so I was nudging him under the table trying to clue him in. This was in the afternoon which is typically our time to escape the heat and maybe snooze a little, so he wasn't catching on too fast. Next thing I knew the wife and I were off on her scooter and banging on the side of the boat, waking up the family who lives on it (again it was afternoon- sleepy time for everyone.) We negotiated a price and they came up the canal to pick us up.
The family that owned the boat- mother, father and teenaged daughter- were gracious hosts. They had a cooler of cold beer and made us some fresh springrolls. Mom pulled out a collection of souvenirs for us to buy and we picked out a couple of cards and a fan but she wasn't too pushy when we told her we didn't want anything else. The pagoda was beautiful, the view on the trip down and back was lovely and there was a nice breeze out on the river. All in all a really nice way to spend the afternoon and we felt good about giving them a little business.
Not at all how we expected the day to turn out but then sometimes those are the best times.