Ants in our pants....
Trip Start
Feb 21, 2008
1
7
20
Trip End
Mar 18, 2008
Hue,
Vietnam
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Hue is really pretty, the buildings are very French and it is also the ancient seat of the Emperors so hopfuly we will go and look around the Citadel soon.
After we got to our hotel (which is gorgeous and incredibly cheap) we had a little rest and cleaned off the dirt from the train (took a while). We had wanted to go cycling out to see the tombs of the emperors of Vietnam which are all around Hue. Well the woman at the hotel took one look at us and said it was too far! We were too late for the organised boat trip so we hired a driver for the day and he took us around the tombs
I knew I should have brought my elephant light
. Just as well, they were miles away and there are no road signs and some of the roads were more like dirt tracks! Anyway iy was raining pretty much all day. The tombs are really beautiful, I'll put up some pics. The last one we went to was hard to figure out the way around, so we went back to the entrance to look at the map and we stood on the grass......now we had just had (another) conversation about snakes biting you, when I felt this bite on my foot and started screaming and hopping up and down (definitely a snake or a scorpion I thought). The girls were looking at me like I was mental and I looked down and it was a big old red ant, so I flicked him off - and then I got bitten on my thigh, they were running up my legs! The girls then realised they were running up their legs and biting them too hahahaha so we are all jumping around the place screeching and roaring and slapping our legs trying to kill them. Oh it was horrible, luckily the place wasn't too busy....but I'd say anyone who saw us had a great laugh. We got rid of them anyway and covered ourselves in Deet and continued on our merry way - only to get lost again, there were no signs in the place. Next thing there are all these dogs barking at us and I can only think "I never got the rabies shot"! All we could do was run away, and around the corner one of the guards saw us and he said "it is this way!" as if we are supposed to be psychic and just know the way with no signs. Then he said to me "oh you are very jolly!" Jolly - more like hysterical fear laughter! We went to a buddhist pagoda last and it was really cool, the monks were praying and chanting in the temple
At least I got to buy a cute umbrella...
. It was raining a lot then so we went back to the hotel.My new phone has now stopped working. Don't bother texting me just email, I pick up my email every night or send me a message on Facebook. I am giving up on the phone I sent an email to 3 but they will reply in 5 working days hahhaa.
My hair. My hair. My hair. Seriously. It is huge. Like a halo. Like a 'fro. I am thinking about getting it all shaved off.
We had a lovely meal tonight, I had eel (closest thing I could get to snake), they had frog but I'm just not there yet :-)
Tomorrow we are going to the Demilitarised Zone where lots of the fighting in the American War (as they quite rightly call it here) took place. We are going to go to the Vinh Moc tunnels where Vietnamese people and the Viet Cong lived in the war. Another fearful challenge for me...... (also we are leaving at 7 am which is quite challenging).
