11.03 Day 56 Hue
Monday 11th March - Hue (Day 56)
There’s a light mist in the air and schoolwork to tackle, but as much as Sienna and Seb say they want to stay in the room, we know they’d be winding each other up in no time so we load up on two bicycles with our rain jackets getting a rare outing. Once we’ve crossed the busy main road at the end of the alley - just start walking and stop looking - there is a smooth riverside path leading 3kms to Thien Mu pagoda.
The stone tablets with writing from the 1700’s don’t hold much interest other than the reappearance of the giant stone tortoises upon which they’re sat. Behind the small active temple, a metal bowl being gonged every four minutes by a monk, are a collection of well kept Bonsai trees which do hold the kids interest plus also the blue car used by a monk to drive to Saigon in 1963 in to protest about the treatment towards buddhists with an act of self-immolation.
On the ride back breakfast comes from a roadside Banh My stall - pork the only filling available eaten in a busy cafe next door, the mostly male crowd of locals breaking for coffee and a smoke. Kate’s passion fruit juice is decidedly red in colour and is in fact tomato juice, the serving of sugar provided not helping and the tiny jug of condensed milk left untouched.
We stop back at My Home Homestay for Seb to have a dial in reading lesson for which he concentrates very earnestly and participates well. Sienna jumping at the chance to do some school work of her own.
The kids’ enjoyment of bike rides - even if their legs are just dangling off the side and their seat cushion is just one of their jumpers - overrides the inclement weather which allows us to make it through the thick citadel walls to a promised bakery. Whilst the setting is picturesque; sitting by a lake watching a man in a narrow boat, paddling with just two small planks of wood checking his fishing lines scattered around the lake, unfortunately the bakery only has one cake, a croissant artificially inseminated with a salty custard.
Lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, which like other named vegetarian restaurants just means they have veggie options; meat is still on the menu. This one in a gated courtyard in front of a homestay - gated to keep in the three rescue dogs they have. Sienna by the end of lunch is of course on the floor with one of the white furballs.
The cycling continues around the inner wall of the Imperial Palace, mostly just locals zipping around on the motorbikes and occasional clumps of cyclos carrying a batch of tourist customers. Moving on uneven back roads we cross narrow bridges to a couple of 50 metre wide islands that used to store gunpowder but now one is an overgrown garden, the other home to a small temple with many types of blossoming flowers and a friendly monk who shakes the kids hands.
We get back to My Home Homestay just as the rain starts to intensify. After more schoolwork and downtime in the room, I volunteer to venture out for dinner, wearing swim shorts, flip flops and waterproof jacket in the rain, covered, mostly by a purple poncho on one of the borrowed bikes.
My destination is a small shop front we’d walked past the other day where dough was being sliced and shaped and laid 30 in a tray into a fire heated over. Despite the rain there is a queue for what transpires to be slightly smaller banh mi at just 6k vnd (40 cents) each. Such is the expectation of foot traffic (i.e. mopeds pulling over) there are two ladies churning out these banh mi on the stall out the front, while the three bakers seen previously, continue their work while languidly smoking. Many people also just stop off to grab plain rolls on their way home. So our dinner consists of nine banh mi’s - three egg, three grilled pork, two bbq pork and one dumpling filled one for the princely sum of 54k vnd ($4 ish), eaten back at the homestay in the communal area.