D96 -- Tastes like feet

Today we went to explore the Citadel, a walled and moated complex built in 1804 by the first Emperor of the Nguyen dynasty. What was left of it after a French attack in 1885 was largely destroyed by US bombing in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive (not, however, before the VC massacred 3000 civilians, I should add). Several buildings in the Citadel were left standing despite all this, and many of them have been restored beautifully in the last decade. We hired a guide to show us around. That's her in the picture. She's a university student who leads tours to help her practiceEnglish. As we toured the impressive imperial buildings and temples she shared interesting facts about the emperors with us. After we'd walked around together for a while she also shared some interesting facts about life in present-day Vietnam. Apparently, if you or your spouse work for the government, you are only allowed to have two children. If you have more than two, you may be passed over for promotion or your salary will be cut. She is the mother of one child, a girl, and she worries that her next child will not be a boy. Even today, she said with notable anger, boys are valued above girls. I wonder if this has anything to do with the high abortion rates in Vietnam.

Our next stop was Thien Mu Pagoda on the Perfume River. It was soooooo very hot and there was not much to see, so we quickly moved on to the Tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. He had the immense complex built between 1864 and 1867 while he was still alive so that he could come here to hunt and write poetry. Perhaps he wrote of his 104 wives and countless concubines! While his empress and adopted son (he was sterile) are buried here, Tu Duc is not. For fear of grave robbers, he and his treasures were buried in a secret location. The 200 poor souls who buried him were beheaded to preserve the secret.

We would have liked one more day in Hue, but we couldn't resist seeing another town so we caught a three-hour bus to Hoi An. We checked into the Hoi An Hotel, much to my delight. It's a four-star place with a pool – best $50 we've spent in a while. We were so run down from our marathon sightseeing that we really needed to veg out. For dinner Thomas had pizza and I had penne arrabiata at a place called Good Morning Vietnam. We kind of needed a break from Vietnamese. My food was good, except for a couple of random bites that tasted like feet. (Well, they tasted like dirty feet smell. I personally wouldn't know what feet taste like.)

Hoi An is THE place in Vietnam to have clothing made. It seems like three out of four businesses here are tailors' shops where you can go in with a picture of a piece of clothing from your favorite catalog and come out wearing that piece of clothing. Alas, I had not come prepared with pictures. But that didn't stop us! Thomas did some quick research on the web for recommended tailors and we set out to a place called A Dong. By the end of the night we'd ordered two custom-made shirts and three suits - two for Thomas and one for me. Gotta look good for those job interviews we'll be going on when we get home. The cheapest one was $50, but we still had second thoughts after our impulse buy. What if I (by some miracle) lose weight between now and then? Does Thomas really need another suit? It was hard not to get carried away amidst the sea of cheap clothing!

-Elva