08.03 Day 53 Hue
Friday 8th March - Hue (Day 53)
In looking for alternative accommodation to expose ourselves to a different part of Hue, and potentially the time to visit more pagodas and tombs, I’d stumbled across a very well reviewed homestay a few kms west of the citadel. It’s still overcast as we check out after packing in some school work as well as packing our bags in the morning.
We walk a small lap visiting various ‘travel information’ desks - which are all just agencies trying to see how much mark up on the ticketed price they can get away with - to enquire on buses from Hue to Phong Nha, our next destination after deciding our favoured train wasn’t direct enough and would cost us too much time. As we’d seen with our last train journey where booking three days early the carriage was empty, yet by the time the train pulled away the carriage was full, booking just a little ahead is hopefully enough to keep you ahead of the game - a routine we are now more settled in.
We had offered the kids Jollibee, a franchised fried chicken outlet in the plaza spotted the day before yesterday, but before we got there, Kate and I settled down for a street-side banh mi. After trying out, and trying twice more, the kids end up with their own as well as we negotiate banh mi and ice-cream instead of fried chicken and chips.
Back to last night’s ice-cream cafe, again the only customers, this time plumping for five scoops in a coconut. The kids' excitement is heightened even further when they go and play with the owners’ cats again and soon emerge from behind the counter with a small kitten on a lead to stroke for a short while.
It’s International Women’s day and the florists are doing a roaring trade (not from Matt - Kate added this) and there are a great many smartly dressed locals heading out for lunch as we walk back to collect our bags and hop in a taxi to Tam Tinh Vien.
Down a narrow alleyway, too narrow for cars with a few Vietnam flags hanging out the front of houses, this hostel / homestay has three cabins, and a small covered seating area, a fish-filled pond and four teepee shaped rooms fronting the river. Run by multi-lingual Jean, it exists to earn funds to pay for the orphanage to which it is attached.
25 years ago after bad flooding Jean was in the area and rescued some children from flooding that was so high it covered our roof. And that was the beginning. He has around 20 children on site attending local schools with extra classes in the recently built bibliotheque at the front of the property.
Our large cabin contains two four poster beds, with both the bedroom and bathroom topping our scoring charts. Jean points us to a temple 10 minute walk away which we visit briefly, collecting the essentials of mangoes and beer on the way back for a healthy session of cards in the dark, heavy wood chairs in our cabin.
Breakfast was included in the rate, but on our arrival Jean says we are welcome to eat with the kids for lunch and dinner - “four more is easy when you cook for twenty”. We later find out they get through about 25 kgs of rice every day, being as it is served as part of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Just before 6 pm we loiter on the edge of their covered seating area where some of the kids are playing badminton. Am I asked to play, or do I ask to play, who knows. What we do know is Seb’s review…. I started well, but then I started losing against the 13 year old Hue. Dinner is a very tasty fish with rice and omelette plus soup. When I’m halfway through, Hue is hovering beside me saying “quickly, quickly”. He also says a name, which we assume is his name, but is in fact his favourite badminton player. He seems surprised that I don’t have any badminton favourites.
Seb too has a first time go at playing and is keen to play more. Sienna is content to view, but is perhaps more excited by the six chicks chirping away in a cage, hiding mostly under their mother.
The kids at the orphanage range from 4 months (who was abandoned on the doorstep aged 3 days) to 23 though it is mostly those in between 6-14 years old that we see, playing around in their cliques. But when one of the employed chefs shouts, they all snap to attention, appearing through doorways and from around corners to help out. With promises of more badminton tomorrow (for Hue and Seb) we close out the evening with more card games in our room.