While I slept fairly well this night, I woke up no better than the day before. This was a “free” day, meaning that we’d signed up for an optional all-day tour. This was billed as the “Perfume River Boat Trip and Lunch at Dong Thien Pagoda,” described as “…exploring life along the banks of the ancient royal capital city. The Perfume River, with its shimmering blue color is dotted with a poetic landscape of boats, gardens, pagodas, towers and temples. The tour continues to the legendary Thien Mu Pagoda, on the north bank of the Perfume River, built in seven successive tiers. Then, a drive to the Tomb of Emperor Tu Duc, final resting place of Vietnam's longest reigning emperor and to Khai Dinh, the last monument of the Nguyen dynasty. Here, a vegetarian lunch will be prepared by Buddhist nuns of the Dong Thien Pagoda.” I woke up determined to go, despite how I felt.
I was relieved to see that K didn’t wake up with any signs
of the cold herself. We showered,
dressed, and went to breakfast, still intent on going. By the end of breakfast, however, I was already
exhausted. In addition, it was a
beautiful sunny day, but the forecast was to be in the 80’s. I made a last-minute decision to remain
behind at the hotel, get some medicine, and rest. K said she didn’t mind going alone, and sure
enough, others on the excursion were quick to take her under their collective
wings. She said it was a very interesting
day, to include several artisan exhibitions (including where they handmake
incense of all kinds), and their lunch was prepared by Buddhist nuns, which I didn’t
even know what a thing. I will include
pictures she took from the day. She did
get to see the tombs of two of the emperors, about whom we’d learned a day
earlier, when visiting the Imperial Citadel.
While I did bring Mucinex along on the trip, I wanted to go
to a pharmacy to see if there was something extra they could offer. I was still fairly certain that whatever was
going around our tour group was of southeast Asian origin, so I thought
indigenous remedies might be best. I
found a pharmacy nearby that was open, so I headed out. The pharmacist was very nice, though her
English was extremely limited. I had looked up several medications that were available
locally and recommended, and between pictures of that and my hand gestures, we
made one another understood. She gave me
several things. I had expected the bill
to be ridiculously cheap but was surprised when I did the mental currency
conversion and learned that it all came to about $30. Certainly not going to break the bank, but
not what I expected. In closely
examining the medication later, I saw that it was all made outside of Vietnam, which
likely explained the cost.
I slept the rest of the morning and then headed to a glitzy
mall that had been pointed out to us the day before. It was owned by the richest man in
Vietnam. I wanted to get out of the
hotel for an hour or two, so they could service the room. The mall had many high-end Western stores and
could have been pretty much anywhere. I
know that a lot of Nike and Adidas sports apparel is made in Vietnam, so I visited
a Adidas “flagship store,” expecting to find some amazing bargains. No such luck.
In fact, the prices were higher than I could get in the U.S., which
baffled me. Tony had told us that most
of the goods made for Western firms are exported, but I still cannot fathom who
would (or could) pay these prices in Vietnam proper. I had lunch at a Vietnamese version of Pizza
Hut (yes, craving something “non-Asian” to eat). The place was half-full of well-dressed
Vietnamese families, but again the prices were U.S. level, so I am now convinced
this mall only caters to the most-wealthy of Vietnamese.
No surprise, but I crawled into the freshly made hotel bed
and slept for several more hours, waking right before K returned from the day
trip. She looked quite spent, as it had proven to be a very warm day and they had done a lot of walking.
 |
| Incense |
For dinner, I had scoped ahead and read multiple reviews. I identified two well-rated places close to
the spa and gave K the choice of Vietnamese or French food. She chose the latter. As we walked the short distance to the
restaurant, I realized we were in the same area where we’d had lunch the day before. The streets were absolutely packed, but
mostly by Westerners. It took me a few
minutes to realize there was no traffic, finally understanding that while we
were in the spa, police had closed down this little quarter of the city and
turned it into a pedestrian-only zone. It
was such a nice surprise, and it all had a very festive vibe to it.
 |
| Our French Restaurant in Hue |
Dinner was in fact of choice of French OR Vietnamese
good. K chose a fixed-course local menu,
while I went for French. The meal was
quite good, particularly the cocktails.
Our walk back to the hotel had us navigating crowds of jubilant folks,
and most restaurants had moved more tables outside, into the street, and it was
like being at a block party. Had I felt
better, we might have lingered, but as it was, I collapsed back into bed. We were leaving Hue in the morning, but we
had had the forethought to pack our bags earlier, so it would not be a
challenge getting our bags outside for an early-morning pick-up.
No comments:
Post a Comment