Tour of Duty (Central)

Hue was beautiful. We stayed at a tourism school practical training hotel which was really great, especially the service. The first day we headed out to see Hue’s ancient citadel. Of course for half of it we were stalked by cyclo driver using the old g’day mate trick to have a chat. And perhaps inevitably we ended up being cycled around for 3 hours with the requisite price dispute.

The other highlight of Hue was that it lies near the Demilitarised Zone so we got a car and went to tour it. The driver turned up and didn’t speak a word of English (which i only mention because almost all cab drivers in Cambodia speak a few words of English and we did pay a premium because we booked from the hotel). The first stop was a tank on the side of the road which the driver pointed out. We hopped out and climbed up the embankment to have a look then turned around and he had driven off. There was a trail so we reasoned that we were meant to walk along it and he would meet us there. So after ten minutes of walking around cows and big holes we went back and saw that he had parked about 50 metres up the road at a war memorialFair enough but it would have been nice for him to tell us even using sign language! The tour was ok, seeing the actual border between Nth and Sth Vietnam, the Vinh Moc tunnels (tunnels where populations lived under ground to avoid American bombings) and Khe Sanh army base.

I agree the Americans are asses but Vietnamese take propaganda to a new level for me !

We then headed down to the town of Hoi An. The old town was nice, but not great i would have to say (same with the beach) and no we didn’t have any clothes made! Mum and Dad’s friends Geoff and Andy happened to be in town so we caught up with them as well.

My highlight was the ancient Champa capital of My Son. This is one of the ancient civilisations that continually battled with the Angkor Empire (and I think eventually sacked it). Its no Angkor and probably comparable to the 3rd rate temples at Siem Reap but I found it interesting. It was bloody hot which i think send dad a little loopy : )

Unfortunately we were cursed by the presence of this French lady. I dubbed her Hyacinth after spotting her coordinated pink outfit and had her pegged for a trouble maker. Sure enough every time the guide made a point, she would squirrel through her guidebook and say something contrary or make a completely irrelevant point in a really rude manner. I even asked the guide a question and she jumped in and answered it!

And just when we couldn’t get enough of obscure sculptures we drove up the next day (before hitting the rather mediocre beach) to Danang to visit the Cham museum of sculpture [before our next flight] which for geeks like me was heaven! Really was one of the best I have seen. To get there we had to pass through yet another marble factory and angry glares once people realized we weren’t buying anything. And by the looks of the amount of marble statues on the Danang promenade, I think someone’s cousin works for the government…

Unfortunately I didn’t count on us having hours of spare time up our sleeves which we spent eating of course. One particularly memorable evening was spent at Danang Airport for like 5 hours , bored shitless and getting totally screwed on food prices I thought the guy could at least asked for my number!

Anyway, two hours on a dodgy airline and we arrived at Ho Chi Minh for the last leg!