Huế Tombs

Lăng Minh Mạng

While in Huế we took the "Three Tomb Tour"...

The first tomb was the oldest one, completed in 1843. It was very big, and made to be in

harmony with the natural elements like trees and water.























































Lăng Khải Định









The second tomb looks dark and gothic, a mix of western and eastern styles. It was started

in 1920 and took 11 years to complete!

































The inside of the tomb looks very different from the outside - so colorful!









This emperor liked the boys instead of girls... ok so that explains all the color









This amazing ceiling was painted by foot... yes, foot....











Wow, it is really starting to rain now...















On the way to the next tomb, the bus stopped at a shop where they make incense and conical

hats. Each hat has a secret poem inside that you can only see by holding it up to the light...









Making incense sticks by hand











Lăng Tự Đức













The last tomb was for an emperor that had no children. This tomb was different because the

emperor himself wrote his own history and criticized all his mistakes. The original plan was

for the tomb to be built in 10 years, but he made everyone work day and night and it was

completed in only 3 years, in 1867.





















Can you guess which one is the statue??









Ok, no more tombs! Riding back to the city in a dragon boat...











Here is the famous Huế bridge on the perfume river













All the dragons lined up in a row!

HUẾ

Our Christmas vacation was to the middle of Vietnam to Hue, Hoi An, My Son, Da Nang...

Here we are about to board the train to Hue.













OMG, the train ride is 11 hours to Hue?? There weren't any more beds available, so we had to

stay in these chairs... I don't think we can get any sleep like this :( ...













At 4am when the train stopped at the next Vinh station, some passengers left, so Thao paid

off a conductor to get an upgrade to a bed ;))

But it was still hard to sleep, this is me after spending all night on a train heheh...











Finally made to to Hue early the next morning! It's raining, and raining every day, till the day

we left. That is why the pictures don't look good, and from now on you can see everything is

wet in the pictures :D . But we still visited everywhere as you can see. Oh, I remember Thao

met two Hue students that told her that it rains twice a month in Hue.... Each for 15 days ;)).











Our Xich Lo driver... He took us around to many places all day, because we thought it would

be cheap. Oooops, ask for the price first Thao :P. Ok Thao will tells you lots of bad story about

this xich lo guy later :)) , yes she wanna kill him :D.











Pass the brige to go in the Dai Noi - the imperial city and emperor's palace.











I'm doing my part to defend the city against attackers!



After Thao took this picture, we heard a crashing sound behind us that shocked Thao....

A girl on a bicycle fell down because two motorbikes ran into her. She was on the ground but

the two guys just left, and even though many people were around, nobody else did anything

to help, even the Xich Lo driver who was waiting near her. So Thao went and helped her get

up, and saw she hurt her leg and was crying. Thao said "I NEVER want to be a Hue girl where

there are people that make accident but just run away, and so many people are around but do

nothing to help. In Vietnam, people always think people in Hanoi are the most coldest, and

people in Hue are the most friendly. But you wrong, in Ha Noi you'd never see something like that happen in Hanoi... If a girl or anyone falls down on the street, many people will come to help. Anyway what i see today make me so sick. OMG is that HUE??? "











Dai Noi from outside. The high walls surrounded the imperial city to protect it.













The flag tower in front of Dai Noi











The entrance to the imperial city. The main doors were only for the king, while others used

the side doors. Ok, I should go in the main door ;)











All the buildings had great roof decorations of dragons, and Thao took 100 pictures of them ;))

























































Hey, that doesn't hurt much! :))











The beautiful queen and her king.













My Vietnamese queen :)











Nhìn rất Huế em hỉ.







The queen changed into her peasant clothes ;))



haha... but still looks so cute











Hue girls with their typical Hue dresses worn by students.













Thao found this girl "Oh looks verry HUE, Em đẹp mà sao vẫn buồn ngóng đợi chi rứa Em? ;))"

Looks like the postcard...

























With Hue's students.



























Ok, done with Dai Noi. Last pose.











Chùa Thiên Mụ.







































Hue specialty food: Bánh bèo, bánh nậm, bánh lọc, bánh ram ít, bánh ướt, chả tôm.

Wowow yummy.... If you go to Hue and wanna eat those things just remember its Quán Hàng

Me MẸ, 16 Võ Thị Sáu. And do not believe any xich lo driver there if they wanna show you

where to eat, because they will just take you to go far away to cost more money. Ok, Thao will

tell you later about what experiences she got from Hue trip ;)).

Countryside Wedding, 21 Dec 08

Thao's cousin was having a wedding in her hometown of Ba Vi. It is about 60km away, and for

the first time she let me drive the motorbike for a few km! ;)) When we finally got there, it was

dark already, and the groom was calling Thao to come to the wedding quick!



The guests at the wedding give money to the bride and groom, so here is Thao writing on our

gift. She is also complaining that in countryside sometimes whole families of 5 people come to

the wedding and only give 50.000 dong ($3) :P











The party is just getting started outside the groom's parents house. Actually this is only the first

day of partying - the wedding parties lasted for three days!











Lots of good food to eat: chicken, pork, beef, bird... And tooooo much Vietnamese wine...



All of Thao's uncles and groom's brothers kept making toasts with me. After I drank more than

20 small cups like you see above, suddenly I started to feel it and was very sick that night. And

the next morning I started to vomit alotttttttttt... I should feel ashamed because it was also the

day I came to talk " Trạm ngõ" to Thao's parents. Thao's parents were so worried for me and

Thao couldn't sleep that night because she was so worried and thought I might die... :( hehe...



Thao's parents were scolding her why she didn't stop me to drink so much, but you know what,

Thao answered that "I didn't know Kyle can drink alotttt like that, I thought he just sipped a

little... I didn't know all the time he drank it all with about 25 cups like that.. All I saw before is

he just always drink beer a little bit..."



The next day, luckily the groom teached me "một ít" if anyone ask me to drink again. So it

worked, and Thao made very sure I didn't drink much anymore :D











Another of Thao's cousins with great hair ;)) The next day Thao wanted to style my hair just

like that, but I said "nooooo he will think I am copying him!!"









Thao's cousin, sister's husband, me, groom, friends...













At the next day of the wedding, the bride went around to all the tables to pour tea for the guests









The bride wanted to sing some songs for the guests











The happy couple with Thao's mom































Bride and future bride;))











Saying good bye to the guests.









Whole family.