Motor Scooter Safari. Hue, Vietnam

This was one of the best things that we did on our Intrepid Vietnam trip, keep reading and I shall tell you why....... It all started with 15 guys on 15 motorbikes arriving at our hotel to pick us up early in the morning. We all had our Intrepid helmets put on for us and mounted our bikes from the left hand side of course! and sat as close to our drivers as we felt comfortable but most of us found as we went along wasn't any where near close enough. Brock's driver was Tham Nguyen and he was catholic (he felt he need to tell Brock this?) and my driver was Huey, he had a really cool flannelette shirt on and was the carrier of the esky that contained ice and our refreshingingly cool face washers that we would enjoy later in the day - this made him a very popular guy, after all it is the simple pleasures in life! Once we were all in the saddle the drivers all let out a rousing "mo hai ba something" (one two three go!) and we were off. Imagine this 15 motorbikes with absolute disregard for the rest of the traffic all entering a busy road at once, interesting concept but it works trust me. Just like 15 motorbikes approaching a T-intersection have right of way, trust me this was frightening! The first stop was Thanh Tom as small village about 20 min ride out of town, we stopped off at the market place where everone wanted us to buy a drink from them, Brock tried rice wine but I passed as my tummy was not really up for it if you know what I mean! Apparently it wasn't that great but thats not really suprising. The village also had a covered bridge over the river and in the bridge was a little old lady dressed in silk pyjamas who was a fortune teller. Thats right kids a fortune teller! It is worth mentioning that was about 80 years old and had her eyebrows drawn on, and lipstick, it was odd. The other odd thing was at the other end of the bridge there was about 10 old men just lying around inside the bridge also wearing pyjamas. There must be some rule in Vietnam created by one of the Nguyen Emperors that once you hit 50 years old its ok to to wear pyjamas all the time........clearly there is no other explanation! So most people in our group had their fortunes told but I wasn't allowed to - Yes Brock is a party pooper! Most people are either going to marry twice and their first marriage would be to an alcoholic, this did not go down well with the other couple on our trip - poor Kelly! The fortune teller didn't say anything about motor bike so it was back on the bikes and off to the arena where the Emperor used to watch Elephants fight against Tigers. It was kind of like a mini colosseum with out the stadium seating. We wondered for a few moments who would win out of Tiger V's Elephant, I thought tiger and Brock elephant but Thanh our trusty tour leader quickly explained that they broke the tigers teeth and claws off so the elephants one everytime. Apparently thats lucky, I'm sure the RSPCA would not share the same definition of "luck". Next was a bit of a hairy ride to a look out over the Perfume river. Quite spectacular really watching the barges go down the river with the mountains in the background in one dierection and the Laos border and the Ho Chi Min trail in the other. The same hill had machine gun bunkers created by the French - good spot for it really we though, at least when you wern't shooting stuff you had something pretty to look at right? Next stop was a incense making shop. Brock had a go at it and lets just say he is much better at being a computer nerd, we also got to try on the Hue poem hats, they are like regular Vietnamese conical hats but they have silloutted scenes of daily lfe inside them which you can see when you hold them up to the light. Brock got to buy a cold Mars bar, I think that might be why he thought this was such a great day! Piggy. Then we headed to one of the toomb of the Nguyen Emperors, Thanh picked a toomb for us that hasn't been restored which was quite nice to see the real deal as sometimes the restorations are lets just say a little tacky! Hue is famous for the toombs of the emperors that strecth along the Perfume river. Next stop the nunnery where we had the biggest and bestest vegetarian buffet I have ever had (the only one i have ever had actually). Mother superior took it upon herself to shovel more food on our plates and feed us with chopsticks, after lunch she made us all lie down for a nap. It was all a bit like kindergarden. The last stop on our tour was to visit the monks - just to balance things out a bit. We went to pagoda where there were many mini monks in training. By far the most interesting thing was the garaged car of the monk who drove himself to Saigon and then set himself on fire (next to his car) in protest against the South Vietnamese government. His picture won the photographer who took it photograph of the year and immortalised him as the cover art of Rage Against the Machines first album.

The trip home involed a ride over a pedestrian brige, which was just wide enough for our bikes, Huey kept tucking my legs in closer to him so they wouldn't get torn off! So then we were home for a well deserved late afternoon nap, we then had very good Italian for dinner and then played Jenga at "Brown eyes" bar till very late. What a great day!