Easy Riders

An Australian and an American are sitting in an Indian restaurant in Vietnam, listening to Mexican music...

Today we had an awesome day around Hue. We were picked up by 2 guys from the Stop N' Go Cafe on motorbikes around 9:00 am. We had booked a tour last night while eating dinner. One driver was just a driver and didn't speak much English. The other driver, Phu, was also our guide for the day. At first I was very apprehensive about going on the bikes, especially given the crazy driving and lack of road rules here. But it was heaps of fun and we relaxed after a while, especially once we put helmets on. Despite the cold and the rain and the mud, it was still a fantastic day, and definitely the best way to see the town.

Our first stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda. It is on a small hill overlooking the Perfume River (yep, same one we went on up in Hanoi), initially built in 1601 by the Nguyen dynasty lord, Nguyen Hoang. The actual 7-story octagonal pagoda in front is being restored as it was recently named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. There are several buildings in the complex, including a huge Chinese stele, a stone tablet with Chinese characters engraved on it. It sits on a giant marble turtle, a symbol of longevity (we saw tons of these in China). There were some people praying with a monk in the main sanctuary. Also in the complex is the Austin motorcar that took the monk Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in 1963 to protest anti-Buddhist policies of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The monk publicly burned himself to death on a street in Saigon in front of this car. You may remember seeing the photos, as it was on the front page of nearly every newspaper and magazine in the world at the time.

We had a great drive through small streets full of people going about their daily lives, and next stopped at the palace and tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. It was built from 1848-1883. He lived here before his death and then was buried here. There were beautiful lakes and moats full of bright pink lotus flowers. The temple where he was worshipped and the temple where his mother was worshipped are still intact. He, his wife (or main wife I should say) and adopted son (despite 104 wives, he had no children) are all entombed here. Parts of some walls are crumbling and have lots of holes-destruction by U.S. military helicopter fire and missiles. There is another huge stone stele here with over 5000 Chinese characters, carved by Emperor Tu Duc himself.

Next stop was at Tu Hieu monastery, an active Buddhist monastery with 45 monks in residence. It is a beautiful, serene place. They have a courtyard full of different bonsai trees, gardens, fruit trees and several buildings. When we arrived, the monks were just finishing their lunch. They wear bright yellow robes and all have shaved heads. There are a few young boys there as well, who wear gray robes and have 3 clumps of hair left on their heads. These will be completely shaved off in a few years when they reach a certain stage. After lunch, a bell rang (actually a bowl) and they all rose up and began chanting. They slowly walked in single file to a separate sanctuary where they continued chanting, praying and bowing to 3 Buddha statues, representing the past, present and future. It is amazing how anyone can be so dedicated as to 'give up' many things to be a monk. They seemed to be such calm, peaceful people. I did feel awkward standing there with a bunch of other tourists, staring at them while they prayed, but it was a neat experience.

Vong Canh hill was our next stop, an old French and U.S. bunker site. It is a nice hill full of newly growing pine trees. The U.S. had cleared parts of the hill for their bunkers and most of the rest was destroyed by chemical defoliants. At the top we looked across the river towards Hamburger Hill, parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (most of it is actually in Laos) and the Laos border. Phu shared some very personal memories with us about the war. He was around 16 or 17 when it ended, so he remembers most of it. He said that "they did not like my grandfather, they did not like my father, and they did not like me" as they were not Communists. His father dug a hiding place under the bed in their home to hide from the Communists. They kept coming to the house to search for him, but Phu and his mother just kept telling them that he died. They never did find his father, and he then fought for the South Vietnamese with the Americans. One night a man came to his family to tell them of the fate his grandfather met. The men had all been ordered to dig a huge pit. Then they had their hands tied up with wire, were lined up on the edge of the pit and hit on the backs of their heads with the butt end of a rifle. They all fell into the pit and were buried. This man had been lucky as he had a thick towel wrapped around his head and the Communists did not notice it. The hit from the rifle did not hurt him. When he heard the Communists leave, he was able to untie his hands and escape. All of the others were buried alive, including Phu's grandfather. Nigel and I were crying by the end of this story. Phu's family was forced out of their home in their village and were transported to Hue. They never went back to their village after the war as their home had been destroyed. His parents are still alive today and live with Phu, his wife and their 2 sons.

After this depressing place, we went to an outdoor shop and saw a woman making incense. She rolls the clay stuff onto a stick of bamboo using a flat cement-layer type tool, where it dries. It was cool to see how it is made, and smelled so good-sandalwood and cinnamon. We also watched a woman making the traditional bamboo conical hats. They begin with a frame made of bamboo wood. Bamboo leaves are dried, then ironed flat and smooth. They are then sewn into the frame, one at a time. They can make 2 hats in one day.

By this time we were starving and went back to the Stop N' Go Café for lunch, where Phu is a waiter in addition to his guide duties. We had more of the self-rolled spring rolls then were off again. We went to the ruins of an old Royal Arena, a Vietnamese coliseum type structure. The Emperor wold have live elephant-tiger fights to the death, cheered on by the villagers, much like a gladiator match. Almost always the elephant won, except if it was an old elephant. One elephant even killed 12 tigers at once! When an elephant died, everyone would cry, especially the Emperor, as it is a symbol for royalty. Nearby is an elephant tomb where they were buried and prayed to after they died. Those were some big graves to dig.

Next we stopped at the Than Toan Bridge, an intricate, beautiful covered footbridge in the outskirts of Hue. We then went for a drive through the countryside, small villages, fields and rice paddies. We saw farmers ploughing their fields, ducks being herded and lots of people on bikes with produce. We drove along a narrow path, raised up between flooded rice paddies. It was beautiful.

We headed to the Citadel and the Forbidden Purple Palace. It is a moated area built in 1804 for the Emperor's official business functions. At the front is a massive, 37m high flagpole with a huge Vietnamese flag flying. The Forbidden Purple City is inside the Citadel, built for the Emperor's personal use and where he lived. It was almost entirely destroyed during the Tet Offensive. We then went to the Military Museum and looked at U.S. and Soviet built tanks and weaponry used during the war. It was hard to see these huge machines built solely for killing people.

Our last stop for the day was the Dong Ba Market, a bustling place full of stalls selling anything and everything. The best part was walking around the stalls outside selling produce, meat, fish and spices. There was so much colour and character among the locals. We were dropped off at our hotel and 10 minutes later Phu came back and gave us some old bullets he found years ago in bullet holes in the sides of buildings around town. You can buy fake 'authentic' ones on the street, along with 'real' dogtags the seller 'just happened to find' on the street, but we believed Phu that they are legitimate. One of the larger bullets was extremely corroded. He said he found it in a bunker. As the end cap hadn't blown off, we were a bit nervous that it could still be live, especially considering where it was found. Actually, we were more than a bit nervous. So Nige chucked it far into the Perfume River on our way to dinner. We ended up eating at an Indian restaurant, ironically enough. And it was the best meal we've had in Vietnam so far too (despite La Bamba playing in the background). We're not eating chicken (because of the avian bird-flu virus), and Indians don't eat beef, and we haven't seen any sheep since we got here so we didn't want to order the lamb, so we got an all vegetarian meal, but it was delicious. And tasted like Indian food too. Our stomachs happily full, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.