Tour of Hue

One of my students is in a free tour guide club, so she arranged for her and some of her friends to pick me up and give me a tour of some sites around Hue. Sunday afternoon she showed up with her friends to give me a lift on the motorcycle, and off we went.

My tour guides standing in front of the bridge

The famous bridge we came to see . . .

After riding away from the city and past tons of rice fields for about 15-20 minutes, the first stop was a bridge - I would have never known it was famous, but apparently it was donated to the town by a rich woman. Lots of people were sleeping on the bridge, and we took some nice pictures. They also had an agricultural "museum," which turned out to be a little room with some traditional Vietnamese tools. I learned about cultivating and preparing rice and fishing from an old woman who walked around and demonstrated all the tools. On the way out of the village, an old lady peeling fruit stopped us and wanted to know if I'd like to try the fruit. It was very sour, but crunchy and refreshing - not my favorite, but good nonetheless. The old lady was surprised that I ate it all - apparently it's not very popular with foreigners (or Vietnamese either - one of the tour guides wouldn't eat any at all).

Old Lady Selling Fruit - She's in her 80's and has tons of children and grandchildren

Next stop, a really famous pagoda in the city. We saw monks during their afternoon prayers and took lots of pictures of the temple and the pagoda. There was also a turtle - my guides explained that rubbing its head would bring you good luck on your next examination, so of course I took their picture with it. I don't have any tests coming up, but I also rubbed the head for good luck - it certainly can't hurt! One of the tour guides said I wasn't what she thought of for a "typical" American - I'm too skinny and reserved. I'm not sure how I feel about that . . .

rubbing the turtle for good luck

famous pagoda

After the pagoda, we stopped for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. We shared a big serving of vegetarian hot pot - a soup with lots of noodles, tofu, and veggies. Refueled, we were off to the night market, which was full of different souvenirs and trinkets (it was rather touristy . . .) I didn't buy anything, but did enjoy looking at all the bracelets, t-shirts, pictures, shoes, purses, etc. on sale.

Tired, we said goodnight, and my student escorted me back home. I was glad to get a chance to see a bit of the city and be shown around by locals.