Another day in Vietnam another boat ride. Today’s was a dragon boat cruise along the Perfume River. The river got its name from the aromatic grasses that once grew along both sides of the river that were used in Chinese medicine. Sadly the grasses no longer exist due to pollution and changes in the river flow.
Along the way we stopped to visit a number of temples and pagoda’s including Thien Mu Pagoda, set on the side of the Ngoc Tran Moutain and home to 28 monks.
At each temple that we stopped there were lots of stairs to climb both up and back down to the dragon boat to continue our quiet and peaceful ride along the river where we witnessed plenty of farming. Our dragon boat ride delivered us to the Minh Mang Morsoleum of the second king. It is considered among the finest royal tombs in Hue. The 40 buildings are set on 44 acres amongst beautiful parkland and ponds. Emperor Minh Mang reigned from 1820 to 1840, he had 500 wives and 142 children. But after it didn’t rain for a prolonged period he asked a fortune teller what was wrong. The fortune teller told him he had too many wives so he released 100 from the palace. After a lunch of Beef and noodles, Bun Bo Hue. We headed back to the hotel for a rest before our evening adventure.
Later that afternoon we ventured to downtown to watch Vietnam play UAE in a local bar. While the football was playing Vu and I had a walk around the streets and did some window shopping.
After the football we all went to a local restaurant for another Vietnamese feast and then some stir fried ice cream rolls which were made while we watched by a young street vendor.
Then we decided we had to try the local frog curry with tumeric lemongrass. It just tasted like chicken except the toes in the bowl were a bit off putting.After a big day of adventure we headed back to our hotel to pack and get ready for the next day’s adventure. Next stop Ha Noi.