More around Hue

As those of you in parts of the northern hemisphere prepare for some potentially nasty weather - Vietnam is expecting a typhoon to make land tomorrow giving us some pretty heavy rain as well!  So today was a rather grey, overcast and drizzly day, but I don't think it deterred from the sight seeing at all.

Today was spent doing more exploring in and around Hue --- this time on motorbike!

The first stop today was at a covered bridge built in 1776.  You can see that there are seven sections to the bridge and the middle section actually has an altar/shrine dedicated to Ms. Tran Thi Dao who was the wife of a high-ranking mandarin at the time and who paid for the bridge's construction.

Next I met this wonderful lady - 76 years old - who is a retired rice farmer.  Wanting something to do with her time she now spends her days in a very local 'rice' museum, telling her stories from when she was farming.  I learned all about the whole process of rice; from planting, irrigating and harvesting, then separating the rice and the husk, to finally grinding it into rice powder.  And what's pretty amazing to think about is that many of the tools and techniques she demonstrated are still used in exactly the same way today.  She is quite the interesting museum curator let me tell you!

This amazing looking building actually isn't important to Hue at all, in fact it's a privately owned family temple, and we just happened to pass by it along the roadside.

Our next stop however was at what is still today an important pagoda to the people of Hue.  It was built in the mid-18th century and today still serves as a monastery and monk training centre.

Off to the side of this monastery is one of the few remaining cemeteries where the eunuchs from the courts of the Nguyen dynasty were buried.

This is an old tiger coliseum.  Obviously not in use any longer, but it was used up to 1904 and was the home of many fights between tigers and elephants whenever the emperor demanded.

Our 'craftperson' stop for today was at a local home where they make incense and cone hats.  As I'm sure you've seen from my photos, Vietnamese people all over the country really do wear the cone hats and apparently the ones made in Hue are renown for their quality and intricacy.

A lookout spot was next on the agenda, with a great view of the Perfume River (and you can see what I mean when I said it was a rather grey day)

from around the bunkers that still remain from during the war.

Now as I said at the start of this post, today's 'adventures' took place via motorbikes, and here's the proof that I was really out on one (third from the right).  Also a few photos that I took as we were riding along.

It's a good thing these cows knew enough, and were quick enough, to get out of my way.

And just so you know, I'm not going to be able to do another blog post for a few days.  Tonight is my last night in Hue and tomorrow night I'm going to be overnighting on the train travelling up to Hanoi.  The night after that I'm going to be in Cuc Phuong National Park and the night after that on a junk in Halong Bay.  The only one of those three locations where there might be even a remote chance of internet access might be in the National Park - and I won't have the iPad with me as we're travelling with just our day-packs for those two days.   So it will be Wednesday morning (your time) at the earliest before I'm back on a computer ... and I'll do my best to get caught up in the days following.