Hue - and all the rest...

There are quite a few sites outside of Hue, including the Mausoleums of the Emperors. And so I worked out what I did and didn't want to see, and then hired a moto driver to take me around. Here's a snapshot:

The Mausoleums of the Emperors were built as a bit of a playground when the Emperors were alive, and the place they were buried when they died. They were like incredible parks, and were really beautiful and peaceful.

I'll not labor too much, as they were all fairly similar - but definitely worth visiting. Here are some pics from my favorite one - Minh Mang's:

Artificial lake:



Pagoda with fish ponds:



The gate at the end is where the Emperor was buried:



The other side of the lake:



A few more mausoleums later, and I headed off to the Thien Mu Pagoda on the banks of the Perfume River.



It's been regarded as a bit of a hot bed of political insurrection (always a good thing :-) and they have the car that Thích Quảng Đức was driven in when he went to his death in Saigon (you can read about it here).

The main shrine:



Woman collecting offerings:



No, No, NO, NO! Some Pigs:



The famous blue car - you can just see the picture in the background, with the car:



It was a really enjoyable day, and definitely recommended - although I think next time I'd take a tour.

(Editor's note: the easily offended should look away now :-)

On an amusing note, the Moto driver was a really happy guy, but about 20 minutes into the long drive to Minh Mang's he starts telling me how good the massages are. He goes on for about five minutes, then tells me he knows the best places in town for "banana massage". "You know this thing: banana massage", he says, turning back to look at me while we race down the road. "You want to go later?"

I declined, and then he asked me if Lady Boys was more my thing. I told him no - but I did have a friend who had got really excited about the Bangkok Lady Boys show at Burnley.

The next thing - he tells me he used to be a Lady Boy and has a small banana, and that he needs to check mine to make sure I'm not a lady boy too. The next thing, his hand is on the move, and I have to push it away, while we swerve down the road at 60km an hour.

Thankfully - I think he got the idea that I wasn't interested in any kind of massage, lady boys, or having my banana "checked out". And despite a few more jokes on the way, I was able to enjoy the rest of the sites without fear of molestation :-)

The DMZ

The De-Militarized Zone lives on in infamy, for being the scene of the worst fighting of the American War. It's one of the places I really wanted to go and see, as I'd read so much about it in the late 70's.

You can read all about it by clicking this link.

The name is a bit of a misnomer, as it was actually the most highly militarized place in the country, and was subject to repeated shelling, Agent Orange / Dioxin / Napalm attacks, and mining.

I'd decided to take a tour, as the DMZ covers a reasonably large area, and I thought this would be the easiest way to see it all. The tour guide was a really nice guy who'd lived in the area, and he presented the information without giving the standard propaganda line.

In reality, there's not much to see. But the scenery was incredible, and the tour commentary was excellent.

The infamous Rockpile:



Left over military hardware at the Khe Sanh Military base. Known at the time as "Khe Sanh hell""



Cows graze at this former military air force base - left over shells litter the ground:



A memorial to those who were separated when the DMZ was created. Some people waited twenty years to be re-united with there loved ones. The woman and child look north waiting to be re-united:



The dividing line between North and South:



I discovered today that it was Easter. A random comment made by someone alerted me to the fact - funny how you lose track...and on a slightly bizarre note, one of the Australian girl's on the tour discovered that her dad worked with one of the other Australians on the tour, and that they had lived a few minutes walk from each other. They then spend the next twenty minutes running through all the people they knew! How weird is that!