The Gods were looking down on us...

Wow - don't ask how much we paid - it was extortionate for here but a complete bargain if at home. Yesterday we posted about our 'what food we're missing craving' one of which was apple crumble and ice cream. Today in Hanoi our lunch place had pineapple,papaya,mango and ginger CRUMBLE with ice cream. We have died and gone to heaven!!!!

(note the 'protective' hand over the crumble - dont mess with this.)

Before we found that though we sorted our plans for the next few days and got slightly lost but then found ourselves again in the old quarter. By the way, our plans mean we might be 'off grid' again for a bit so maybe no blogs for 5-6 days but we promise no more motorbikes parents! 8-)

We also wandered around Hoan Kiem lake and admired (sort of) the preserved giant tortoise of a species that supposedly lives in the lake, trouble is no-one has ever proven there are any more in the lake.

Afternoon saw more wandering of the old quarter - we saw 'engine and welding alley', 'shoe alley', 'haberdashery alley' and numerous silk shops and tailors.

(welding, and machining alley 8-) )



Then onto the water puppet theatre. This was very cool. A stylised version of entertainment the rice paddy farmers used to provide. Although I tell you, having been ankle deep in a rice paddy in Cambodia (and therefore speaking with some experience), they are full of dung, crabs, frogs and biting ants (I still have the scars around my ankles). There is NO WAY I would ever stand knee deep in them to wave some puppets around.

The stylised version however involves nice clean water, a theatre and puppeteers wearing galoshes and was generally much less smelly than rice paddies actually are so that was alright. The puppets themselves were great - fighting bullocks, dragons, fish, horse races, circles of fire and flaming torches all came in to play along with traditional music and singing.
Martyn was fascinated by how the puppets worked as there were no strings from above - it was all done with horizontal poles - very clever.

(Camberwick Green had nothing on this, they had dragons and fire and everything)

Have to go and pack for the next few days now as it's up early in the morning!

Fred the frog and food

Last day in Hue today. We have very much enjoyed our chill out time here!
Off to the Forbidden purple city inside the citadel this morning. The bits that hadn't been destroyed by war or natural disaster were very beautiful.

We rescued a tiny little frog we called Fred who was hopping around on some very hot slabs in the sun. Silly Fred. Well, I say 'we rescued him' actually Martyn scooped him up and put him in the shade under a large bronze pot - but I did some excellent rescue mission directing!! Then we both realised we had checked out without saying goodbye to Gordon the gecko in our room - he was very noisy last night for some reason.

We realised last night that the geckos here speak a different language to the ones in Cambodia and Bangkok as well - there they say 'Eck-oh' and here the just say 'eck'. These things are important we feel.
Afternoon by the pool for the last time and horror of horrors - when we got their someone was sat on our sunbeds under our umbrella - the cheek!

And there the inevitable happened. On all trips there is almost always that moment when someone says 'oooh I would really like.,....' and then finishes with some item of food from home. We've been away longer than usual so the list was longer. We started with a sandwich from the bakers down the road, then flapjack, indian, roast beef and roast potatoes and apple crumble and ice cream..........,5 hrs later in the airport and we're still salivating.......

Kind of appropriate

Sat in bar in Hue waiting to go to airport later. In a display box are some zippo lighters, some US Army, some Vietnamese. No idea if they are real but they look old.

One has the following engraved on it....

'When the power of love is greater than the love of power then there will be peace,'

Lessons everywhere you look!

Whats cooking?

Well we did - a little bit, but fortunately it was much cooler today - only 31oC. Thank goodness as slaving away over a hot gas burner really takes it out of you!

We had a choice today - Demilitarized zone or find something else to do.

We didn't much fancy another day tour with lots of time spent in a bus and we kind of felt we had done all the 'war' stuff we could cope with - there is so much more to this country.

So we mooched around for a bit yesterday and pondered our options. The lovely lady in the hotel suggested two things

1) limestone caves (again a drive away and we've seen quite a lot of stalagmites and tites in our time so didn't really fancy this)
2) Hot springs spa (Martyn about keeled over - on average 35oC and the suggestion is that he gets into HOT water?!!! this option was not for us)

and then we found a cooking class. The only mistake we made was having breakfast before we left! Fortunately however they did doggy bags so we've just eaten the spring rolls we made for our dinner - very yummy.

SO yes, Masterchef here we come. We started with a trip to the market, which was great because although we've visited a fair few markets this time we were actually buying stuff. We came away with bags loaded with beef, pork, shrimp, rice paper, dried and fresh noodle, peanuts, sesame seeds, salad and some other stuff. We managed to avoid the pigs snouts and buffalo tail fortunately.

Then the cooking started. We made Hue style pancakes (one each). 10 fresh spring rolls and 10 fried spring rolls and beef noodle soup. Oh and some peanut dipping sauce and a chilli sauce. All very yummy. We had posh aprons and tall white chefs hats and everything.

Raymond Blanc has nothing on us......although I suppose it was a bit more Ken Hom.

Back to hotel for a small nap (oops) and a bit of a Hanoi planning session followed by a cyclo trip around the Citadel. We haggled for our fee and eventually got what the hotel owner had said was a good price. We were supposed to get an hour but after half an hour we got off and walked - we felt really bad for the guy who was pedalling us around. At least Tuk Tuks have engines!

Please help

I am sat by the pool under an umbrella. It is 37 degrees in the shade apparently. I am sitting very still in the shade and still the sweat drips......

Martyn says I am not hallucinating. A more mature lady of European descent has indeed just walked passed me wearing jeans and carrying - A COAT.

Seriously, an orange padded jacket ...... Please help!!!!

Not bad for the price of a Happy Meal

Not that we are entirely sure of the cost of a Happy Meal but we think it is somewhere around what we paid for our day trip today.

We had heard that there are two types of Vietnamese tour guide
1) very nice
2) never going to see you again so don't care

Have been spoilt by our week with Wing and Tin Tin but feel we definately met option 2 today!

We also decided that we have obviously been travelling in SE Asia for a while now as on principle when told we had to pay to get in to some gardens we had been told were free we

1) objected pleasantly to the tour guide
2) didn't bother going in
3) worked out it would have cost us less than the price of a 2nd class stamp!

But hey we've seen lots of gardens and by the time we had worked out half the group were objecting as well, the other half had been in and come out again!

Still it was a busy day and very enjoyable. Having decided to ignore the guide completely (apart from 'when do we have to be back') we saw the Royal Tombs of Tu Duc, Ming Mang and Khai Dinh. All very different - Ming Mang very peaceful surrounded by water, Khai Dinh quite imposing on a hill with lots of mosaic work and Tu Duc was a bit sad really - he doesn't seem to have been a very happy chappy. Also saw a pagoda somewhere but I forget its name.

Got to the tombs via a dragon boat cruise along the river - lunch on board - much nicer than we were expecting!

Back for dinner and a bit of a planning session. We've been scuppered by the holiday season again. Having worked out we could fly from Hue airport to Hanoi to save some time the airport is closing and is only operating one flight a day at 10pm. Due to holiday all flights full until 5th May. Of course could do bus or night train but we have loads of those coming up in China and lazily couldn't be bothered (and I confess, the locals do not travel well and my ability to cope with more ill SE Asians on any mode of transport is reducing dramatically!). Consequently we have another three days to fill here and a bit less time in Hanoi than we were planning on. Never mind, we're going to the pool again tomorrow and enjoying the 'chill time' (and the western food - ahem, ooops) a bit before we pick up the pace again from Hanoi to the end.

Did I mention we are now on the last page of our big trip calendar??? We got the China book out today and started to read a bit of it....... Did I just mention 'the end' ?????? Oh the trauma.

By the pool

All day by the pool - very nice. Under umbrella for all bar 2 hours - prime sun bathing time = 930am to 1030am and then 1430 to 1530, too hot apart from that. Still, for the first time since ummmmm, our honeymoon I may actually have a tanned midriff!

Martyn took advantage of the attached spa to get himself a haircut, nicely done although now he has another hilarious tan line around his neck where his hair was longer!

Hotel food and drink very expensive so we shared lunch as it was £8 which us an absolute fortune here, we have struggled to spend that in a day during the last week. Still, without Wing and Tin Tin we will have to get used to paying tourist prices again!

Somewhat depressingly we have just crossed out the last day of April on the little date planner we've been carrying around. This means we are on the last page ...... Crikey. No more slacking by the pool then, better go see some more stuff tomorrow!