Hey, Hey, Hue (and Hoi An)!

Iqbal and I continued our journey by leaving the tight bustling quarters of Ha Noi for Hue (pronounced like whey). Hue was once the capital of the Nguyen empire in Vietnam. The old Citadel was built around 1800. We thought surely we would finally encounter some rain there, but no. Iqbal skated through Vietnam with barely a drop of it touching his blessed saintly head! We only spent a day there, but covered the high points and took a good tour of some of the outskirts. One highlight of Hue is the cuisine, which still reflects the special preparation and tastes of the Nguyen emperors. If it was good enough for the Nguyen emperors it's good enough for us. And it is quite good. Iqbal had a spicy rich seafood pot that was absolutely mouth-watering, the best dish I've tasted in Vietnam. Even my boiled squid was quite good, after being dipped in the special sauce it was served with. And I'm not talking about Chicken McNuggets special sauce. BTW, there are no McDonalds here. At least I haven't seen one.

After Hue, we took a car over the Hai Vai pass to the charming city of Hoi An. We stopped at the top of the pass to take in the view. Down below, we were informed, was a leper community. This is apparently still a problem here. The leper community is more for treatment and rehabilitation, not simply a quarantine area to ostracize lepers, we were also told.

Hoi An is a well-known town with a lot of character and is very popular with tourists. It's famous for its shoe and clothing makers. I had a pair of custom leather sandals made and Iqbal had a number of items made, including a suit. There are also quite a few high-end restaurants in town and there looks to be a bit more development underway. I hope they don't go too far with it. As it is, the balance is about right, IMO. In Hoi An, as in any touristy area in Vietnam, a foreigner is bombarded with constant cries of 'motorbike!' from the guys offering motorbike taxi service. They often come up from behind and I had gotten in the habit of dismissing them with a little wave of my hand. As I was walking down a Hoi An street, I heard the familiar and tired 'motorbike!' in what sounded like the Vietnamese accent. I did my usual dismissal wave with my hand and looked up to see the motorbike pass by, but the driver was not a Vietnamese, he was a grinning foreigner! He got me good. I yelled out to stop because I now wanted a ride! He kept going. And grinning.

In Hoi An, Iqbal and I parted ways. His 10 days in Vietnam was over and my stay was now 2/3 over. A bit of sadness being on my own again and having only 10 days left. I took a bus to the little coast town of Quy Nhon (wee nyon).

We were informed by some locals that this is, in fact, a baby dragon.

Maybe an old guard house?












Some of the local school kids. We didn't have to twist any arms to get them to pose for a photo!

View down towards the leper community from the Hai Vai pass between Hue and Hoi An.

Even though there are a lot of tourists in Hoi An, the streets there have a way of making them all invisible!