Saturday Dec 27

We woke early this morning to get ready to meet our group from Butterfield & Robinson.  We gathered in the hotel lobby and then set off by pedi-cycle through the market to eventually arrive at the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.   It was quite the scene getting into the Mausoleum, as we had to surrender our cell phones and cameras, go through a metal detector, and be constantly chided by standing soldiers along the way about how we were holding our hands. (Apparently they must be hanging down by your side in order to see Mr. Ho).  You file through the mausoleum, much like that of Lenin or Mao, stare intently at the figure which seems almost like wax, while being shoed along by the guards lining the path.

We then toured the complex where Ho Chi Minh had lived, which was nicely reconstructed.  He reminded me a touch of Ghandi in his desire to have modest living circumstances.

We had a small walk, including seeing a monument commemorating the downing and rescue of John McCain, and then eventually found our way to the airport for our flight to Hue.  It's amazing how big Vietnam is.  We took a one hour flight just to get here, and we still are not at the south part of the country.  Hue is the old capital and near the former demilitarized zone.

After arriving in Hue, we drove towards the location for an afternoon walk.  The drive was a long narrow causeway.  I remarked that I certainly hoped we would not encounter cars in the other direction, as it seemed one lane to me, at which point we did encounter such a car and had to squeeze by each other.  However, that wasn't the worst of it.  All of a sudden we pulled to a stop with some commotion ahead of us, and there was a man lying on the roadway.  He appeared to be hurt, but we couldn't tell if he was alive, and we had no idea what had happened.  There was a lot of anger and emotion going on, and there was another guy trying to kick the downed man, who was being protected by a few women.

There was no getting by this scene!  The man could not be moved, and no ambulance seemed to be showing up.  We started backing up, but we could clearly not back up the whole way, which probably had been a half mile.  So, they found a place with literally one extra foot of width in order to turn the van around!  I had to close my eyes, because I definitely pictured us going into the water.  I think it took a 6-point turn, but we made it around and went back the way we came.

The walk ended up being quite nice, but very late given a delayed plane as well as the unfortunate man on the road, so we ended up doing only half of it before it became dark.  But we did get to walk through river villages which still used the river as they had for centuries: fishing, washing, and for their livelihood.  Lots of kids greeted us with big smiles and "hellos", apparently not often used to seeing a bunch of Americans wandering through their neighborhood.

Out hotel is a lovely country spa complex which, again, has some odd little touches, but overall is quite nice.

-- Donna

PS: No time for pictures now; maybe tomorrow...