Wow, I really have been neglecting this thing. It's been what, 2 weeks and 6 cities since I tried to capture some memory of my travels in a more tangible, readable, form. Where to start...
Hue.
I flew to Hue from Hanoi after a night of little sleep (thanks to lovers down the hall and the constant humm and honking of Hanoi traffic) and felt terrible upon arriving at my mini-hotel room on the 6th floor. After waking up from a morning nap (to recover from waking up at 4:45am for my flight) I realized that I had a bit of a fever and tried to nurse myself back to health with some vitamins, echinacea, vitamin-c rich foods and an afternoon of lounging around in my hotel room watching HBO and CNN on the tiny television. I ended up sleeping almost all day and woke up in the evening with a higher fever and began to panic. Consulting Lonely Planet and the print-outs from the Travel clinic only led to further worry, as both advised travellers in Malaria areas to assume any fever is Malaria until proven otherwise by a blood test. My trusty guidebook also advised that my symptoms could be Dengue Fever, Typhoid or a vast wealth of other tropical diseases as well, adding to my unease. After calling home for a bit of reassurance from my mom, downing a couple tylenols and a couple litres of water my fever -and paranoia - subsided.
The Next day in Hue, I took it easy in the morning then tried to make up for lost time in the afternoon. I visited the old Forbidden City inside 3 meter-wide walls of the Citadel. It held some interesting architecture and art and a vast array of photographs and postcards from the last 100 years that I found rather interesting. From there I wandered down to the local food market and took a ton of photos of the women in their conical hats selling all kinds of horrible-smelling fish and tons of colorful fruits, vegetables and flowers. After arranging a bus to my next destination for the following day I booked a motorcycle guide for the next morning and wandered the city a bit more before splurging on some pizza at a touristy Italian restaurant close to my hotel. My motorbike guide, Deo, and I met early the next morning and he took me to see a really amazing pagoda on the river and 2 tombs of former kings. The pagoda was both beautiful and peaceful despite the masses of khaki-vest clad tourists arriving by the bus load. Monks were singing and going through prayer rituals while I was there so I just sat and took it all in for quite a while before hopping back on the bike. The tomb of Khai Dihn was pretty incredible as well, with a mixture of modern and traditional architecture and a stunning view of the mountains. After 4 hours of being chauffered around the local sights I headed back to grab my stuff and catch a bus to what would soon become one of my favorite spots in Vietnam...
Hoi An.
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