Around Hue by Scooter.
Another nice and fulfilling day, and the day I finally rented a motorcycle, although it was actually a scooter as that’s what they had for rentals at the Four Seasons. It cost $5 for the day, although I actually only took it until about 4 pm. The ride, covering a total of maybe 35-40 miles, took about five hours, with stops.
Actually, I initially had a hell of a time finding the places I wanted to visit, as I kept having to stop to look at Google Maps, and initially I missed a bunch of turns on these small country and village roads outside of the city. I should have taken my ear buds so I could hear the directions even if I couldn’t see them, but that dawned on me only after I was out and about. Later, I realized that Google Maps was actually leading me astray on some of these back roads, as it has done before, and didn’t actually know where it was going, and taking me in circles. At that point I switched to Apple Maps, which not only did a far better job of getting the directions right, but linked to my watch so from that point on I could see the directions on my watch. Much better, and by now I was fully used to riding the scooter.
But before all that, my very first task was getting gas in the city, so I immediately had to negotiate the crazy driving on the very busy streets, including a large traffic circle in the city, while figuring out how to get to a gas station. I succeeded at both, as well as figuring out how to actually gas up and pay. The scooter was very easy to ride, and also extremely nimble. The last time I rented a scooter was in St. Maarten with Alan in 2005. The traffic was crazy there also, but not as crazy as it is here. My major adjustment with the scooter was putting my feet on the running board, and it took me a while to not try to place my feet onto foot pegs that didn’t exist, as on a motorbike, as well as looking for a foot gear shifter, as the scooter has an automatic transmission. I enjoyed riding it, with my skid lid helmet on top of my baseball cap. I mostly rode at speeds between 25 and 40 mph, and enjoyed the ride. Very different than a motorcycle ride, and much more relaxed and easy paced.
It was also very hot, in the 90 plus range, and humid of course, and by the time I got back to the hotel, around 4, I was wiped out from the heat. Still, I’d have kept the scooter for the rest of the day and ridden some more in the city, but I really had no idea where to go or how to get there, so I turned the scooter in and went up to my room, pretty pooped, took a shower, and slept for about an hour.
After first getting the scooter in the morning, once I was gassed up I headed to my first destination, Thuy Xuan Incense Village, an old craft village a few miles outside of the city, and the largest incense-making area in Hue, dating back 700 years, the primary supplier of incense for the royal court and the nearby pagodas. The incense sticks are long, dyed in different colors, and bundled together in multi-colored batches that are fanned out, and at first glance look like colorful brushes, rather than bundled sticks of incense. This was the first placed I had difficulty finding, because I kept missing small turns, and wound up on a more significant highway heading to Da Nang. Not that I minded. Although I enjoyed the places I visited, I even more enjoyed the ride, including in the city, but especially on the roads outside of the city and the very small rural roads I later took, as well as the larger highways. It was excellent.
Then onto the Mausoleum of Emperor Tu Duc, but after driving round and round, literally ending up where I started in Thuy Xuan, I switched to Apple Maps and things became easier, navigation-wise. Still, until I realized my watch was feeding me directions, I continually stopped to make sure I was still on the right route.
The mausoleum was another beautiful spot, and really a tribute from the emperor to himself in death. In effect, it’s a large wooded park and gardens with various tombs and ornate buildings and structures throughout, with a lovely pond and stream, missing only the lily pads. Even though I had a couple more mausoleums and pagodas on my list for today, I decided to skip those, as I was getting templed-out. They’re all beautiful, tranquil, and majestic, but I think I’ve seen enough. Kind of like the cathedrals and churches in Mexico.
I headed instead to Hồ Thuỷ Tiên, the abandoned water park, which I’d noticed on a couple of motorcycle guided tours, and sounded intriguing, It was. It’s actually like something from a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, with the old and empty, and sometimes rusting, remains of what was once a water park out here, in the middle of tropical forest land, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and then along came a giant abandoned dragon head in the middle of a lake. Pretty wild.
You could walk inside the dragon head and climb to the top and step out into the mouth, which I did, along with a group of young Germans who were having a whale (or maybe a dragon) of a time in there.
The road that led me the abandoned water park was at times very rural, and sometimes hardly a road at all, with some beautiful rural scenes along the way. I loved it.
Finally, I rode to the Thanh Toan tile-roofed bridge, the Southeast Asian version of a New England covered bridge, only much nicer. It too was beautiful, as were its classic surroundings. Like everywhere else where there were locals, I was repeatedly asked whether I wanted to buy something to drink or eat or some goods. As I walked by vendors, or as I drove by on the scooter, vendors would yell to me to stop and buy.
I rode back into the city, much more confident now on the scooter, and with my watch telling me just when to turn, etc., and turned the scooter back in, and napped for a while. Then I wrote my blog… I must say, although I have experienced some really lousy internet service in many of the places I’ve visited over the years, this place has the worst, by far. It comes and goes, and it can take a loooong time to upload a photo, making blogging a much longer than usual, and quite frustrating.
I headed back out again around 7, both to get something to eat and to visit the Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Walking Street, which actually turned out to be the very same area around February 3 Park that I visited yesterday, but looked lovely with evening lighting in the park and along the walking path, and people out relaxing and enjoying themselves. I fended off the by now customary, and sometimes quite in your face, vendors for rickshaw rides, spas, and other street goods, and for the first time in this entire trip was asked, four times by different vendors, whether I wanted marijuana. I suppose it’s my beard and ponytail, despite my age, but it’s funny not only that this is the first time I’ve been asked on the trip, or on my recent trip to Mexico, but also that I had multiple offers.
I found somewhere nice to eat, and enjoyed another nice meal of local food, for less than $9, came back to the hotel, fending off still more vendors, came up to my hotel room, and packed for tomorrow, as I leave around 6:15 for a 7 am train to Da Nang, en route to Hoi An, where I’ll be staying for the next three nights.