tomb of emperor Tu Duc
Mr Tauer and his girlfriend enjoying the Hue degustation-style cuisine
emperor's reading room in the forbidden purple city
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Hue
We spent the first day in Hue covering most of the sightseeing, visiting one of the royal tomb complexes (apparently they have many), the citadel and the forbidden purple city which enabled us to spend the rest of our time within 200m of our hotel without a guilty conscience.
Hoi An to Hue
Day 1: 35km, Hoi An - Danang
Day 2: 41km, Danang - Lang Co
Day 3: 65km, Lang Co - Hue
We left Hoi An on the third of January and spent the next three days cycling up the coast to Hue. It felt a bit like Scotland, beautiful deserted white beaches and cloudy drizzly cold weather. We went to see the 'Marble Mountains', a group of marble hills with caves and buddhas surrounded by a village that seems to consist of marble sculptors and marble shops only, selling everything in marble one could wish (or not) for. All the vendors were shouting 'buy something!' at us, but unfortunately our bikes can not handle a seven ton marble elephant.
In Danang our hotel room was next to a monastery which gave us the privilege of witnessing the once monthly chanting that starts at 5am but we managed to block it out with our earplugs. The next day we cycled over the Hai Van pass (490m), the dividing line - in terms of weather - between north and south. We were looking forward to some hot weather but instead it was worse on the other side. It was nice having a break from the flat though and to have stunning scenery to look at (even though it was in shades of grey).
Lang Co, situated between the sea and a big lagoon, was just teasing us as it must be amazing when the weather is right, white sandy beaches, coconut trees, bla bla bla. Having dinner at a place famous for its seafood, we were the only guests in the vast resort complex, which felt a bit eery.
By the time we arrived in Hue the bad weather had given Bea a cold and we ended up spending a couple of days extra recuperating.
Cua Dai beach
Day 2: 41km, Danang - Lang Co
Day 3: 65km, Lang Co - Hue
We left Hoi An on the third of January and spent the next three days cycling up the coast to Hue. It felt a bit like Scotland, beautiful deserted white beaches and cloudy drizzly cold weather. We went to see the 'Marble Mountains', a group of marble hills with caves and buddhas surrounded by a village that seems to consist of marble sculptors and marble shops only, selling everything in marble one could wish (or not) for. All the vendors were shouting 'buy something!' at us, but unfortunately our bikes can not handle a seven ton marble elephant.
In Danang our hotel room was next to a monastery which gave us the privilege of witnessing the once monthly chanting that starts at 5am but we managed to block it out with our earplugs. The next day we cycled over the Hai Van pass (490m), the dividing line - in terms of weather - between north and south. We were looking forward to some hot weather but instead it was worse on the other side. It was nice having a break from the flat though and to have stunning scenery to look at (even though it was in shades of grey).
Lang Co, situated between the sea and a big lagoon, was just teasing us as it must be amazing when the weather is right, white sandy beaches, coconut trees, bla bla bla. Having dinner at a place famous for its seafood, we were the only guests in the vast resort complex, which felt a bit eery.
By the time we arrived in Hue the bad weather had given Bea a cold and we ended up spending a couple of days extra recuperating.
Cua Dai beach
Marble Mountains
asking directions to Danang
'The world's finest collection of Cham sculpture'
colourful incense sticks drying
glasgow?
getting up to the Hai Van pass
Lang Co
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Hoi An for New Year
Hoi An is a town designed to try and make tourists spend their money in tailor shops, so this is what we ended up doing as well as wandering around the old town with its stylishly faded buildings and lanterns, eating local specialities and enjoying some beers. Had it not been for the tailors we would have had a wonderfully lazy relaxing time. We did not see the sun once so we even saved ourselves a daytrip to the beach. Hoi An is such a nice town that we could have easily spent another week here, but we started getting worried we would lose our fitness and become lazy slobs in suits so we decided to move on to Danang (30km down the road), inching our way towards Laos.
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