Thursday 3 October 2019
Another scorcher of a day with the temperatures hitting 36 by midday (but felt more like 45!) and humidity levels high. We farewelled Hoi An and headed toward Hue (pronounced “Way”) via Danang and the Hai Van Pass. Hue is a four-five hour drive from Hoi An so we were most grateful for our modern air-conditioned bus! We also stopped at several points and had a chance to walk up to the sentry towers at the top of the Pass which used to serve as a border between North and South Vietnam. We saw someone biking up to the top of the Pass in the heat of the day and really hoped they had the good sense to stop for a while as they were an unnatural shade of pale! The countryside was lush and tropical looking which helped detract from the windy nature of the road.
Not a lot of photos as David was using his phone (as I had the other camera) which meant a less obsessive style of photo taking was adopted :)
We arrived midday and after lunch went to the Imperial Citadel and explored the Forbidden Purple City. This had been home to the Vietnamese Royal Family up to about 1945 when Ho Chi Minh got the king to end the monarchy in Vietnam. A number of the buildings had been destroyed during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War but you still got a sense of how grand a space it would have been over time.
Following this we had a 2 hour “Cyclo” tour of the countryside and those guys certainly earned their money! It was an interesting experience to be in amongst the evening traffic (at exhaust level.... splutter splutter) with no protection whatsoever and when we returned in the dark we didn’t even have any identifying lighting - which was a bit of a concern as our party of 12 crossed the main road! Still everyone got back to the hotel safe and sound so no harm done. The kids along the way often came out to greet us with “hello” and a few stood at the side of the road so they could High 5 everyone as they came past.
Another scorcher of a day with the temperatures hitting 36 by midday (but felt more like 45!) and humidity levels high. We farewelled Hoi An and headed toward Hue (pronounced “Way”) via Danang and the Hai Van Pass. Hue is a four-five hour drive from Hoi An so we were most grateful for our modern air-conditioned bus! We also stopped at several points and had a chance to walk up to the sentry towers at the top of the Pass which used to serve as a border between North and South Vietnam. We saw someone biking up to the top of the Pass in the heat of the day and really hoped they had the good sense to stop for a while as they were an unnatural shade of pale! The countryside was lush and tropical looking which helped detract from the windy nature of the road.
Not a lot of photos as David was using his phone (as I had the other camera) which meant a less obsessive style of photo taking was adopted :)
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| Hai Van Pass |
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| Beach at Danang |
China Beach
We arrived midday and after lunch went to the Imperial Citadel and explored the Forbidden Purple City. This had been home to the Vietnamese Royal Family up to about 1945 when Ho Chi Minh got the king to end the monarchy in Vietnam. A number of the buildings had been destroyed during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War but you still got a sense of how grand a space it would have been over time.
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| Main entrance to the Forbidden Purple City |
Following this we had a 2 hour “Cyclo” tour of the countryside and those guys certainly earned their money! It was an interesting experience to be in amongst the evening traffic (at exhaust level.... splutter splutter) with no protection whatsoever and when we returned in the dark we didn’t even have any identifying lighting - which was a bit of a concern as our party of 12 crossed the main road! Still everyone got back to the hotel safe and sound so no harm done. The kids along the way often came out to greet us with “hello” and a few stood at the side of the road so they could High 5 everyone as they came past.
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| Add caption |
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| Passed this hotel on Cyclo Tour |
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| Looks like the line-up for the wheelchair Olympics but we are actually stopped to view them bringing in the ducks for the night on a duck farm |
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| Back in one piece! |
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