Hue & the Royal Tombs

Hue, located near the picturesque Perfume River, is about a 3-hour bus ride north of Hoi An. Like many Vietnamese cities, motorbikes are ubiquitous, and when out walking you have to be careful because often there seems to be virtually no traffic regulations. When crossing streets for instance, you must always look both ways because often the motorbikes will be coming at you against the traffic. Pedestrians are advised to walk slowly (i.e., do not panic and do not run!) to make it easier for the oncoming motorbikes to steer clear of you. As you're crossing, with dozens of motorbikes speeding past on both sides, you feel kind of like Moses parting the Red Sea. For Saigon alone, the "motorbike capital of the wold," a 2102 estimate was 4 million motorbikes in a population of 7 million, with 1,300 more motorbikes added to that every day.

For about $5 you can take a 1-hour Perfume River night cruise on one of these dragon boats.

The Perfume River night cruise includes live traditional Vietnamese music.

During the cruise, the boat stops for a while in the middle of the river and some of the passengers light candles and set them adrift in floating paper lanterns. I was told you're supposed to make a wish when you do this, but I didn't know that at the time.

On the outskirts of Hue are the Royal Tombs, built for the rulers of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). I paid someone in Hue to take me out on his motorcycle for a morning to visit some of these tombs, and then took this picture in a rural area miles outside of Hue where he'd left me after we ran out of gas. Luckily he found someone on a motorbike to take him to get more, so we were back on the road within about 30 minutes.

This and the subsequent photo were taken at the Royal Tombs. The 5-hour morning excursion turned out to be well worth the time, effort, and money.

While out visiting the Royal Tombs, we stopped this rural roadside stand where incense is made by hand.

Many cafes in Vietnam make a big deal out of a simple glass of Lipton Tea. Served with it are various fruit slices, herbs, and even an unexpected little mound of salt. Surprisingly, these additions greatly improve the taste of the tea. Also, a complimentary glass of Vietnamese green tea is often served with your Lipton.

I spotted a small shop on the outskirts of Hue that makes these fake Ford seats. When traveling in Vietnam, caveat emptor! There are lots of fake products for sale throughout the country. Of course there's the standard fake DVDs, CDs, handbags, clothes, and jewelry, but black market commercialism in Vietnam goes way beyond that realm. There are knock-off novels, Lonely Planet guidebooks, Apple stores, taxi companies, even hotels. One possible scenario is the unsuspecting tourist, newly arrived in Vietnam, reading a fake guidebook while being transported in a taxi of a fake taxi company, heading for a ratty low-end hotel set up so as to mislead one into thinking it's the (much better) hotel several streets over.

Jackfruits are the largest fruits in the world -- up to 3 feet long and 2 feet wide. Originally from the Western Ghats region of India, their taste has been described as a mixture of apple, pineapple, mango, and banana. I've seen packaged jackfruit chips (kind of like potato chips) for sale in Malaysia and here in the Philippines, and recently saw a photo of a jackfruit stand on a street in Manhattan.