Well, since we were pressed for time, we couldn't exactly join any of the day trip packages. So in the morning, we went over to the Purple Palace. It's a huge palace of the old Emperors back when Vietnam had emperors n the like. A really lovely place. The govt has rebuild some of the areas to house historical items n some retail stuff but on the whole, there are substantial areas where the original architecture still stood firm today. There were also areas where we could peek into the depths underground i.e. there are cellars that no one wonders. One of the strangest thing was that the govt permitted people growing vegetables in certain parts of this place. Very weird.
The place took up our entire morning - it was that huge.
Then inspite of the drizzling weather, we rented a bike and went searching for the old Emperors mausoleums. We found Vietnam's most "holy" site from long ago - now it's nothing more than a platform for the occassional monks to come n pray.
Next, we came to the smallest of the mausoleums. Unfortunately it was looked. Then we made our way through many small villages constantly asking for directions until we arrived at the most glorious one of all - the Lonely Planet folks are prejudiced against this one but we thought it was grand. All the original architecture was still there. It was massive, intricate, black in many places but within - very colourful. This was also the place we were pleasantly surprised by how cheap the souvenirs were. Of course with all good things, there were some bad. A couple of old ladies let us park our bikes for free. So in return we thought we would order a drink from them. To our shock, they charged us four times the normal price. Talk about highway robbery.
Anyway, we wend our way to find the "largest" most tranquil mausoleum next. For this we went to a small town, boarded a govt operated river ferry (we were charged double!) and got across to another side of the land. Riding through some rough country, we finally reached the place. It was kinda dull actually - more like a walk in the park than anything else. The final gateway to the "burial" area was under lock n key.
On our way back, we decided to really rough it. And boy was it a mistake. U see, in the morning, there were rains n for many a kilometer, the roads were not properly tarred. So it was muddy and at times, it was almost faster to walk. We had to get off the bike n pushed it along until we were both covered in mud.
We did pass by a few of the other mausoleums on the way and the famous Pang Mu Pagoda. This is significant for modern reasons i.e. politics as well as historical - a fairytale relates to why it was constructed.
The short n long of it was it took us nearly 1.5 hours to reach back to HUE by then we were both dog tired n slumped into an Indian Restaurant for some good food which turned out to be crappy. Sorry lah but after so many days of Vietnamese fare, we just had to taste something different. Anyway, it was kinda embarassing to return the rented bike to the owner seeing as it was so caked in mud.
After shower, we took the bike out to the river casing everywhere we could and even visited all the other 3 star hotels before finally settling to walk through the main shopping thoroughfare for some souvenirs.
Today has got to be the best day of my trip so far.
V13 - HO CHI MINH.
V14 - HOME
No comments:
Post a Comment