I don’t take too many tours while I am travelling. I enjoy trying to find my own way to the things I want to see. Yesterday afternoon I sat down in a cafe for a beer and within about two minutes Ms Tu had me signed me up for her brother’s tour of Hue.
The cafe has comments and testimonials written all over its walls and even on the roof. The tour started around 8:30 am and I was taken all over the city and into the countryside. I couldn’t understand a lot of what my guide was talking about, but he had me in stitches laughing. The tour was done at break neck speed, which is my kind of tour – no leisurely messing about.
I did get to see Hamburger Hill, where one of the major battles of the Vietnam war took place, unfortunately the battery in my camera had gone flat.
This picture is of an Austin which in 1963 a monk, Thich Quang Duc, who in protest of the discrimination Buddhism was facing drove it to Saigon and set himself alight, where he burned to death. I think this was a precursor to the Vietnam war.
This picture is of a young monk who is making an offering of rice and water. His head is shaved after five years of living in the monastery.
My visa has almost expired so I am trying to get an extension for another month. I want to spend some time in Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa.