Street of Mystery.

What are those?

Whatever they are, every shop on the street is selling them. Click to see.

Pretty!

Actually they are the sticks that will soon be made into various types of incense.
Here you can see a woman rolling a stick in a thick paste of cinnamon to make
a cinnamon incense stick. It's tedious handwork, but the demand for incense
here is high, hence a street full of incense manufacturers.

We also saw how they make those conical hats.

P.

Our Day in Hue.

We arrived in Hue in the late afternoon, and it was hot. Too hot to consider going anywhere that didn't have air-conditioning. So we holed up in our hotel room and caught up on email and bloggery.

The first sunset we've seen in many months. Hanoi is either
overcast or there are too many buildings in the way for us to enjoy
sunsets, moon, or stars. We've missed them.

In the morning, our guide met us at the hotel and took us on a tour
of the city, starting with the most important Buddhist temple.
Hue was the old imperial capital of Vietnam until 1945, and is still
considered the major intellectual and artistic center. Everyone also
told us that the food was the best in the country.
Alas, we did not find this to be true.

The temple and monastery is built on a beautiful stretch of the Perfume River.

It's still very much in use as a center of worship.

We were able to meet some of the novices training to become monks.

And to visit their kitchen.

The monk who burned himself to death in 1965
in protest of the Diem regime came from this monastery.
He drove to Saigon in this car.
We tend to forget that 16 Americans also burned themselves
to death to protest U.S. policy in Vietnam, beginning with
Norman Morrison, a Quaker, also in 1965.

The grounds are lovely and tranquil.

The roof decorations are particularly vivid on the temples here,
usually using colorful ceramic tiles.

Bats are a symbol of good luck, as they should be.

Next, we visited the famous Citadel, site of some of the
most vicious fighting of the Tet Offensive, which is
known here as the Mau Than (Year of the Monkey) Victory.

This is also the site of the palace of the emperors of Vietnam. The huge area,
bounded by a moat and a formidable wall, housed about 40,000 people,
and included the Forbidden Purple City, where only the Emperor,
his wives and concubines and their female servants, and a corps of eunuchs
were allowed. There were 15 emperors in the imperial dynasty.
The last one relinquished power to Ho Chi Minh in 1945.

In France, we had a guide on a tour of the Loire valley who pronounced "nobles" as "nobbles." This has been a running joke for O. and I ever since: Barnes and Nobble, etc. Our guide in Hue had excellent English, but pronounced "dynasty" to rhyme with "the nasty," leading to many bad jokes.

Much of the Citadel and the Forbidden City was destroyed during the war,
but the South Gate and the palace survived intact.

There are great roof decorations.

You can don silk robes and have your photo taken in one of the palace's
anterooms. Very popular with the Vietnamese tourists.

And then there are the Ten Judicious Kings of Hell.

Next we visited the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc, who reigned until 1883.
In Vietnamese culture, it is the duty of the emperor's children to build
a tomb for their parents. Tu Duc had over 100 wives,but no children, due to a
childhood bout of smallpox. Therefore, he had to build his own tomb.

Having completed what is much more like a second palace than a tomb,
complete with gardens and a lake, a good 15 years before his death,
he used the tomb as a retreat and hunting lodge, enclosing birds and deer
in a small area for some Cheney-style shooting.
No word if he ever shot anyone in the face, but after his death,
all those involved in his burial were executed, so no one is sure
to this day where he is actually interred!

Tu Duc was a melancholic aesthete and spared no expense (or forced labor)
to make his tomb a beautiful work of art. Later he felt bad about things like this
and about handing the country to the French and declared that he would
remain in his tomb for only 10,000 years instead of for eternity in penance.

The rich truly are different than you and I.

P.

We Contemplate China, Then Return to the Mysteries of Hanoi.

That's China, just across the river from Lao Cai.
Our guide picked us up in Sapa in the late afternoon and
drove us to the Chinese border for a quick look before taking us
to the train station for the night train back to Hanoi.

We arrived back at the Ga Hanoi at 4:30 am. We had a hard time finding our driver, but eventually we were racing through the dark streets to Justin and Jyoti's house. Suddenly, we noticed that the street was thronged with people. We quickly realized that this area near the bus station was an informal distribution center for fresh meat and produce. The farmers and country people come here and pass their goods on to the distributors who load everything in baskets and styrofoam coolers, strap the containers on the back of their motorbikes, and zip off to all the little alley and storefront markets in the city.

It was an incredible scene involving hundreds of people, and the amazing thing was that it was all happening in the dark.

P.

The Elusive Silver Falls.

In the afternoon the clouds broke and the sun gave us a whole different view of Sapa.

We saw a sign that read "Silver Falls" pointing up the road that climbs
into the hills above town. It promised adventure, so we decided to explore.

We trudged for a couple miles through beautiful scenery.
Every once in a while we'd see a sign to assure us that we were still
on the right road. A couple of tour buses passed us going up hill,
but none came back the other way.

The road was lined with lush vegetation and old houses.

A funky old hotel.

After a while, O.'s feet began to hurt, so she rested while I walked
quickly ahead to find the falls, which unfortunately remained elusive.

Finally, we gave up and hobbled back to town. We rested at a small cafe.

We were very glad that we weren't carrying this kind of load.

Later, we found out the the falls were six or seven miles from town, so we were wise to give up when we did.

P.

Saps in Sapa.

We started our last day in Sapa with a great breakfast buffet.
Note to bacon lovers: the bacon here is really good--smoky and
delicious--but they don't like cooking it much. It's mostly just warmed up
and flaccid. Tasty once you get used to it, but I still prefer crispy.

The Black H'mong women were out selling their wares.
Their clothes get their distinctive color from the indigo dye that they manufacture.
Many of them have their hands and forearms permanently stained by the dye.

You can probably guess where the Red Dao women get their name.

Their headdresses are wonderfully ornamented with brass and beads.
Click on the pictures for detail.

The town really reminded us of the hill villages of Guatemala.
Even down to the big Catholic church on the town square.
But then there are the big billboards of Uncle Ho to remind us
we're still in Vietnam.

We spent some time bebopping around town.

Inspected some bamboo root sculptures.

Met some friendly monkeys.

Passed on the BBQ chicken and grilled eggs (in the shell).

A beautiful morning in this alpine paradise.

P.

Return to Sapa.

After a restful sleep, we enjoyed breakfast on the veranda.

O. made a new friend.

And so did P.

We watched the family's ducks being released from their little shed
for their morning feeding. At about $15 a head, these birds
make up a substantial portion of the family's wealth.

Then we said goodbye to our hosts and headed back to Sapa.

Along the way we encountered more children and water buffalo.

And beautiful morning glories.

And found out where those goofy reindeer go.

The villages are very poor and primitive.

So it's no wonder that the rich tourists are instantly mobbed.

Back in Sapa, we checked into the Victoria Resort, a very lovely
four-star hotel. Quite a change from the rustic home-stay.

The views weren't nearly as good, nor was the food, but we
did have Internet access and great cocktails.

P.