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Huế, Viet Nam
16° 28' N 107° 35' E
Mar 23, 2006 08:57
Distance 499km

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Other entries in Huế

Ty takes us to Tombs

Text written in: English

So we arrived in Hue yesterday morning after a marathon bus ride on a crappy vehicle with squeaking seats and barely functioning a/c and immediately decided that the only thing to do is to rent motorbikes and explore the surronding area.

So even though my last experience driving a motor bike ended in a scrape on my knee, I figured that this would be fine (especially with the added safety feature of a helmet). I tried the bike down an alley way and it turns out that even the manual transmission bikes are incredibly easy to pilot... so we rented our bikes and headed for the petrol station to fill up.

While we were there, Noah started to chat with a vietnamese guy named Ty who told us that he would be a guide in exchange for practicing his english. So we happily agreed and headed out of town. soon enough we were in this guy's house drinking tea with him and chatting. He told us how much he liked americans and then he explained why; his father had fought for the south vietnamese army  with the u.s.. He also explained that his family had recieved some pretty poor treatment from the conquering north vietnamese after the american withdrawl. His parents had been imprisoned, the government had taken or burned all his family's possessions, he had not been allowed to continue school, and he thinks that the government killed his father in while in prison. He was now a farmer with a family of his own, but he had time to take us around because he was waiting a month for the rice harvest.

after chatting and tea, we headed out to one tomb. It was the burial site of vietnamese emperor around the mid 1800s, and it was impressive but not very well taken care of or exciting. We then went to one built during the french occupation that was also not too exciting, but was ornately decorated with all kinds of colored tiles on the inside and with a french flavor. cool to see.After the tombs, we headed back to ty's house.

At ty's house we had more tea, then went swimming in the river by his house. we took his dog (room? I think was how the name was pronounced) and joined some younger vietnamese guys in the water. No the river seemed pretty clean because I hadnt seen any trash in it, and hadnt seen any livestock either, but when I wet my head I closed my mouth and  pinched my nose on the off chance of bad waterborn diaseses... I figured that I couldnt offend by staying out though... so I just hope that I dont get sick. after  this much needed cool off, we went back to ty's house and his wife served us lunch. we chatted a little longer, met ty's son, watched room chase some chickens and then took our leave. What a great experience.