HỘI AN

On the bus go to Hoi An from Hue, about 4 hours...











Thao met a very beautiful girl that she wanted to steal and take home with her. ;)) She gave

Thao a very nice picture that she drew while on the bus.













The bus stopped for lunch. Here is Thao waiting to go pee ;))











A very nice picture behind the restaurant, even though it is a very cloudy day...









Finally got to Hoi An! Thao is relaxing after a long bus ride in our nice hotel room, only

300.000 dong ($17)









This is the famous Chùa Cầu - the Japanese Bridge Pagoda.









An old house in Chinese style. The whole city was mixed cultures of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese...











Some beautiful hand-made lanterns. Here the woman is making a custom lantern for us. We

bought 2 big ones and 10 smaller ones, for about 500.000 VND













I'm eating something outside a Chinese pagoda. As you can see, there are more foreigners in

this city than locals. ;)) Because there is so many nice old buildings to see in this small town, it

is a popular place for tourists to visit.









Lanterns of many different colors. Thao says "I want to buy this one!!"









The "Lantern Lane". Don't like the price at one shop? Try the next one heheh.













We bought 10 of the lanterns shown on the left, looks so nice!













We bought 5 bananas too :))









Thao eats some bread in nhà hàng, and I had a much-needed cà phê sữa đá. :)









The river at the end of the town. We rented bicycles for the day from the hotel, and it was fun

to ride everywhere.









The motorbike ferry to cross the river... Looks like a lot of heavy motorbikes for such a small boat!









Kids sell little clay statues on the streets. Thao saw her beautiful girl again from the bus, and

bought her one. :) Actually the girl saw Thao first, and stood waiting for Thao to see her ;))









Specialty food of Hoi An: Cao Lầu and Bánh Vạc.









The lanterns look really great at night













For the final game of the AFF Cup against Thailand, we went to a cafe near the hotel to watch.

Thao was very scared and nervous near the end of the game when Thailand was winning, so

she couldn't watch and had to wait outside. I told her to never give up!! Because Vietnam was

playing so well but just very unlucky... But finally in the last moments of the game, Vietnam

scored and won the AFF Cup! Everyone was cheering and shaking my hand, and Thao was

very happy and sang the Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh song when riding the bicycle back to the hotel.

But it was a small town, so not many people were out celebrating, nothing like what must be

happening back in Hanoi. "Ohhhh they must be breaking Hanoi" :))

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 ;)).