Same, same, but different
Hue, Vietnam
Hoi An was a charming town, with a tailor every other store, and lanterns lighting up the streets at night. Sadly it rained all but a few hours there, but luckily those few hours were for our bike ride around the countryside and the rice fields. We happened upon a farmer and his buffalo, and we ended up all getting a spontaneous jaunt around the field.
We spent a lot of our time in Hoi An walking around the streets to the tailor, or to get more banh mi sandwiches from the best spot in town. The tofu sandwiches I had while I was there were different and delicious every time, one day with peanuts, the next with chili, and another with chutney. And Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk worth walking back for.
Despite the rain, some of us decided to explore the Cham temples at My Son (pronounced mi sun). Built in the 8th century, these temples are even older than Angkor Wat, and supposedly the oldest in Indochina. The mist shrouded mountains were an inspiring background and made it easy to forget the rain. We caught a performance of traditional dance and music, with women dancing with jugs of water on their heads, and a man who played a note without taking a breath for at least a full minute and a half, with the audience squirming in their chairs uncomprehendingly and uproariously.
Hoi An was a charming town, with a tailor every other store, and lanterns lighting up the streets at night. Sadly it rained all but a few hours there, but luckily those few hours were for our bike ride around the countryside and the rice fields. We happened upon a farmer and his buffalo, and we ended up all getting a spontaneous jaunt around the field.
We spent a lot of our time in Hoi An walking around the streets to the tailor, or to get more banh mi sandwiches from the best spot in town. The tofu sandwiches I had while I was there were different and delicious every time, one day with peanuts, the next with chili, and another with chutney. And Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk worth walking back for.
Despite the rain, some of us decided to explore the Cham temples at My Son (pronounced mi sun). Built in the 8th century, these temples are even older than Angkor Wat, and supposedly the oldest in Indochina. The mist shrouded mountains were an inspiring background and made it easy to forget the rain. We caught a performance of traditional dance and music, with women dancing with jugs of water on their heads, and a man who played a note without taking a breath for at least a full minute and a half, with the audience squirming in their chairs uncomprehendingly and uproariously.
After fully appreciating the temples, we moved on to Marble Mountains, a series of five mountains representing the five elements; water, earth, fire, metal, and wood. We explored Thuy Mountain, the water element, where large caves were discovered with alters, staircases, and giant statues carved out of the marble. These caves were used during the war as a hiding place.
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| Lachlan, Grace, Jareth, Liz, me, Matt, Karen, Kerianne, at the top of Marble Mountain |
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| It was hard to take pictures in this dark cave, but compare the size of the Buddha statue to the man in the bottom left corner |
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| Marble Mountain selfie! Karen, Kerianne, me, and Liz |
Most of us got something tailor made, and we had a fun evening where everyone dressed to the nines for dinner, then went to karaoke, a popular passtime here.
We have since taken a bus to Hue, stopping at a beach along the way for a couple cartwheels and handstands to stretch our legs. Still raining in Hue, but it didn't stop us from taking a trip around to see the sights; another blog post to follow.
Ugh ignore my name, it says my YouTube account haha.
ReplyDeleteThe Buffalo is so cool! This is awesome. Ugh. I love your posts.