Having
finished an event filled few weeks in Southern Vietnam, it was time for us to
make our way to our last section of the country; the central region. This would be our last bit of time in
Vietnam, but it would also be one of its most eventful. What had originally been planned for only a
one-week tour turned into almost three.
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| One of the many gateways in the Imperial Citadel in Hue, Vietnam. |
Central
Vietnam was one of the areas I had been looking forward to visiting since we
had arrived for two reasons, history and food.
Historically, I was going to get to see a wide range of Vietnamese
history; from 17th century Hoi An to Imperial Hue and the Vietnam
War era DMZ. Food wise, I had come to
understand that each region of Vietnam had its own specialties. Central Vietnam having the most diverse range
of different foods; many of which could only be found there.
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| Hoi An Waterfront, Vietnam. |
Hoi An
was our first stop in Central Vietnam. I
had been informed for a few days prior to arriving that we would be spending a
lot of time shopping, as Hoi An was the known as the “tailor capitol” of
Vietnam. I can’t say that I didn’t
partake myself, I mean I was there, I could pass it up. So, I visited the Bebe tailor shop and got
fitted for a three-piece suit.
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| Streets of Hoi An Ancient City, Vietnam. |
While
we waited the three days for our clothes to be sewn and refitted, we took a
tour of what else Hoi An had to offer.
The entire downtown area is a UNESCO Heritage Site filled with canary
yellow buildings of the colonial age and interspersed with 17th
century wooden houses. As we walked
around enjoying the sights, we also stopped in to many of the shops and
restaurants, as well as a craft brewery.
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| Dragon Bridge in Danang, Vietnam. |
Three
days later we received our tailored clothes and set off on the short bus ride
north to Da Nang. Da Nang had two
things I was looking forward too, food and craft beer. Nem Lui, basically a build your own pork
spring roll, is what Da Nang is known for and we covered that on the day we
arrived. The following day we hungout on
the beach eating tropical fruit before heading that evening into town. In town, we headed over to 7 Bridges, a four-story
tall brewpub over looking the river and Dragon Bridge. Going to the top floor, I tried a few of
their beers and watched the Dragon Bridge’s nightly show. The bridge, so named because its trusses are
in the shape of a large dragon, puts on a show each night where it blows water
and fire out of its mouth.
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| A residence at the Imperial Citadel in Hue, Vietnam. |
The
following day we headed for Hue, the Imperial City, where our trip took a turn
for the worse. Renting a moto, we had
planned to see the City of Ghosts, a bunch of Royal tombs, and the Imperial
Citadel, but we ended up only in the hospital.
Only one kilometer from our first stop another moto made a U-turn in
front of us and gave me no other choice than to lay ours down. This resulted in a bunch of cuts, scrapes,
and breaks, but the moto was unscathed…
Peeling myself off the concrete, we were fortunate enough that there
were people around that offered to take us to the local clinic, where a nurse
cleaned us up a bit and tried to stop the bleeding. We were then transferred to a hospital where
we were further cleaned up and received x-rays and stitches (all of which cost
about $45 USD).
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| A temple at the Minh Mang Tomb in Hue, Vietnam. |
While
we laid in the hospital recovering, the owner of our hotel showed up to get our
moto and take us back to the hotel. The
hospitality of the hotel owner was amazing and I could never thank him enough. He never charged us for the moto, offered to
take us back to the hospital if we needed, gave us a discount on our extended days,
and recommended us to some cheap tours when I had recovered enough to walk. This all was amazing, especially since
infection shortly ensued in my leg due to my poor cleaning. We ended up needing to extend our stay for a
week; I unable to walk further than the 1-2 blocks to get food.
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| A trench at Khe Sanh Combat Base in the DMZ, Vietnam. |
Once I
had recovered enough to walk, we joined a tour of Hue that included most of the
sites we had originally planned to see.
The tour was great and we got to meet some really nice people as
well. The following day after that we
joined another tour to see the DMZ as well.
You hear a lot about the Vietnam War in school and from movies, but it
was great to see the places in person.
It was also refreshing to be able to hear about the war and battles from
the other perspective.
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| Thien Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam. |
The
next day was our last in Vietnam and ended our three-month tour of the
country. We would move on to Laos, but
would keep fond memories of Vietnam. It
still today is one of my favorite countries that I have traveled to.
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