Vietnam Culture
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2008
1
16
65
Trip End
May 2009
Hue,
Vietnam
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Forbidden Purple City ( 1687) is very similar to the forbidden city in Beijing. It has the huge Hung To Mieu Temple and another the Phung Tien temple
Dieu Du National Pagoda ( 1841) and listened to a monk chanting his prayers, interspersed with a bong on his drum and a dong on his bell, it was a shared moment....you had to be there.
Temple and tomb for king Tu Duc who was hated as he was a palyboy. This wasnt his fault entirely, having had small pox he was infertile, but he didnt realise that so he had about 500 concubines in an attemp to have an heir. Also he was the "one" that handed Vietnam over to the French.
The Thien Mu pagoda where the king qho only "ruled" for 8 months, under French control. His adoped mother had him bumped off, so she could carry on with one of the manderins. Blimey, its just like our royal family in the 1800's....think im all templed out!
So ya know, in Vietnam a pagoda is a place of worship and a temple is a structure built to honour some important geezer.
Had lunch at a nunnery today, whilst hitting on those temples. Lernt that the girls dont have all of their head shaved , they get to keep a bit , so we saw a few girls that had these odd fringes with a long section of hair on one side of their heads ...could be a new trend....but dont think it would go down well at work.
Oh the posh posh travelling life
This place also does shopping, the Dong Ba Market is huuuuuuge, loud , full of smells and amazing colours. Shantel is now knick named "shopping" and her husband Nick is " bank". On to Hoi An tomorrow. Tam biet Mable x
Xin Chao (hello) every one, Mac is getting into this language lark, although there are the usual traps. Vietnamese has 6 sounds not like the 4 chinese have. This means that the word for soup sounds just like the word for a lady on the night. One being more expensive than the other and likely to cause Mable to be a bit upset! Hue, pronounced Hoye is nice, the old quarter is mad like Hanoi and the other side of the river clean and quiet. Mac was happy when he found that he could get free wi-fi outside the Asian Hotel, travellers note. Mac and Mable have had some great food here but don't comment on the landlady in the Ushi bar looking like a well known interview host from Holland, although she does and called her bar after her. You will end up with a DVD player on your table while you eat with the volume turned up to 20..... Chocolatte from Belgium will die. Up early again tomorrow and Mac hasn't packed his bags yet so off to bed. Mac x
Comments
Nice chopper !!
Love the chopper Mac ....
So good to hear from you Carol things are going well with the salon walls knocked down and new ones put upthat sort of thing should be finished next wk I must admit I'll miss the boys(the builders)singing there hearts out when they go!!! next will be the flooring hopefully on the 15th Dec then we wait for the furniture to be shipped in from the Germains!!
Lovin hearing all your news XX