Hue: Parks and River Cruise

June 15, 2017 Leoniedukes 0

15 June

Dinner last night was at a nice little restaurant along the river. I had some stir fried pork with mushrooms, and a plate of morning glory (water spinach) sauteed with garlic. It was delicious.

This morning I was booked in for a class on how the traditional conical hats are made, and decided to walk there. I picked up a banh mi at a roadside stall (cheese, chilli sauce and salad) and munched it as I walked. As is the case everywhere here businesses spill out onto the footpaths, and I walked through various businesses including a florist arranging flowers and a sign maker gluing together models. I was a bit early, so I stopped in a local shop for coffee. It was definitely a local place so I ordered coffee and waited to see what I got. In this case, I got a black vietnamese coffee – a glass with very strong coffee at the bottom and some ice cubes. It was quite good, and only cost around 30c.

The hat making class was interesting although basic. The main process is sewing the leaf pieces together over a series of hoops, all held in place over a wooden frame to hold the shape. My stitching was pretty messy, but getting a lot better by the 8th round. Aparently most people only manage to finish about 5, so I was doing well – although nowhere near my teacher, who can sew extremely neatly and quickly, despite having only one hand. At the end I was given a finished hat – not my work, but probably just as well considering the quality!

After the class I walked back via the river, to take a few more photos of the park and sculptures. It was the middle of the day and quite hot, so a lot of locals were taking advantage of shady spots, napping on park benches or in hammocks.

Monument. I believe it was built to honour those who fought for France in WW1

Garden lighting. These guys, in various poses, were all around the park.

Dragon boat on the other side of the river

Pedal boats on the river – I never saw any of these being used

This is the restaurant where I had dinner last night. The whole area is deserted during the day.

The archway in this picture is lit up at night. Note how covered the women on motorbikes are – the sun is so fierce it is better to be covered despite the heat

In the afternoon I decided to say yes to one of the many offers for a boat ride, and took a one hour trip around a nearby fishing village. It was very pleasant, paticularly with the breeze over the water.

View from the front of the boat. I don’t think the owners are much into gardening.

This bridge was the only road access to the fishing village.

There were a few nice looking places on the water.

The park and pagoda viewed from the boat

For dinner I finally had one of the signature dishes of the area, Bun Bo Hue. Basically pho with some different seasoning, primarily lemongrass, and herbs and beanshoots on top. It was very nice, eaten on an authentic plastic stool, and only 40,000 – about $2.30

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