Day 5 – 07.10.2016
I apologise in advance - this will be a long blog post, seeing as we spent nearly 8 hours on bike, we got to see a lot.
We woke up early again this morning. I had slept terribly unfortunately – not due to the alcohol intake of the night before, but more due to the very hard mattress, where I could feel every spring individually.
I booked myself a massage to relieve a bit of the backache later in the day.
Getting into the lobby our numbers were definitely decimated a little, seeing as the hangover had its effect on some more than others.
Nevertheless we went outside where our motorbikes plus drivers were already lined up.
We chose our drivers via their car keys from a helmet and off we went.
First stop was at a duck farm. Nothing obviously like European standards...
Our little motorbike convoi.
Sneaky photo while on the bike.
A better look at the rice fields including the waterbuffaloes. We drove passed them and at time we could have probably pet them had we wanted to.
Cows wander all over the streets in towns, on crowded streets and even highways...
Next stop at a local village with a very old bridge. Inside the bridge is a little temple where they worship the lady who comissioned this bridge, as it helped to form a local food market on the other side of this bridge.
This is a flood meter. The two grey markings represent the height oft he water in 1994 and 1999. Both time people were killed. The lower marking meant wading in waist high water, the second marking would have covered any vietnamese. They all climbed up onto their roofs and waited out for the water to lower for three days. Those people that caught ducks floating around were lucky. Any other animals like cows and waterbuffalo all died in the floods.
We then visited the local market. There were women buying live ducks that were tied up on the legs and then just stuffed into a plastic bag. A whole different idea on buying animals for the kitchen. Maybe she was hoping the duck would suffocate in the bag before she had to kill it herself...
Next stop was the tomb of one of the first emperors. He died of a disease quite quickly and so the workers had to accomplish the building of this tomb in a very short period of time of only a year. It was essential, that the tomb would not be found by anyone, in order to assure that there were no robberies of the grave or tomb contents. Therefore some of the workers volunteered, others were forced to work at the tombs construction. Those that volunteered expected the honour of constructing the tomb of the emperor for their families as well as the compensation. The others, who were criminals, hoped to get out of the jail one more time, and hope for a bit of compensation for their families. After their work had been done all the volunteers and criminals were killed so that all of them would take the secret of the emperors location with them to their grave.
Below is the temple in which the emperor is worshipped by his relatives and his family. In Vietnam the dead body is never kept in the temple of worship –this is done with names and images of the deceased.
The shrine.
Pottery and ceramics play a large role in the vietnamese culture. They are everywhere and decorate all sorts of temples and tombs. For this specific tomb, it is said that as the emperor would only eat from a new plate each meal, the others were shattered and used to decorate his tomb.
The tomb of the emperor was designed in the Chinese manner. Only when the french arrived the vietnamese received their own language and writing – before that they used mandarin.
This is a little drawing from Quong our tour guide. It shows the tomb complex. According to feng shui, the tomb needs to be protected from wind (which brings the evil spirits), which can be done by a wall, and through water. The whole complex is surrounded by man made lakes / ponds and water canals (the arms). Including the square where the statues can be found, the little temple of worship (the body), the little bridges connecting the square (the neck) and the round hill (the head) in which the tomb of the emperor is believed to be (the stone in the circle), the whole complex looks like a body lieing on the floor looking up to the skies or heaven.
The neck.
The neck and ceramics. (Unfortunately a lot is destroyed by the bombings.)
Next stop a little road shop producing insence. We even had the chance to try rolling these bamboo sticks ourselves with the insence substance.
Lunchtime! This was a fig mixture, that was eaten with the krupuk crab chips.
Lovely vegetarian soup with fresh herbs.
Steamed rice paper with crumble.
The garden where we had lunch.
Next up was a buddhist temple complex. This pagoda (a buddhist temple tower) is made up of 7 layers, seeing as this is a lucky number for the buddhists. It is said, that wenn Buddha was born, the first steps he took were 7 steps before he fell back down again. Under his feet where he had just stepped emerged lotus flowers, making the lotus flower a very important symbol for the buddhists.
Again this location is protected by the perfume river. (Water and Feng Shui)
More of the buddhist temple complex.
Below is a photo of the car of the monk who lit himself on fire. With this car he drove to a street corner, got out, prayed, told everyone that he was going to light himself on fire to protest against Buddhism (about 90% oft he populations religion) being forbidden and monks being put away. He told everyone that if he would fall with his face to the ground, then they should make sure to leave the country and try other ways to protest. If his body would fall backwards and his face was facing the sky, then they should continue their efforts as they then would have the support from Buddha. His body burned and he fell backwards with his face facing the skies.
Another special thing is that the buddhist believe that when you become a buddhist monk and pray for Buddha a lot, then he will loan you something of his. Be it a finger, a toe or something else, that when you die you will give back to him and have your own one left. (Meaning that this part of your body can’t be burned or doesnt decay.) In this monks case, after the body had been completely burnt to the ground, the other monks praying around him took what was left of his body to bury it and found that his heart was still intact.
More of the temple.
Group photo :)
Our boat for the boat ride on the perfume river. Or as our guide would say, they call it the perfume river, but it smells like shit.
After the boat ride we were picked up and driven to Hue’s citadel.
First we entered through the royal entrance. This entails three doorways that all had their own proper purposes. The centre door was only permitted to be passed through by the emperor, the left door was only permitted for the priests and educated advisors of the emperor, the right door was only permitted for soldiers and commandors of the emperors reign. There were more side doors for the concubines and horses and elephants, but the main focus were the three rounded doors and passageways in the doorway.
The map of the imperial city cituaded inside the citadel.
The entry to the imperial city and the feeding of the beasts.
Next we headed onwards towards the reception building of the emperor. In the centre of the building you can see the emperors throne in gold and reds, unfortunately a place where one cannot take any photographs.
Next we headed onwards towards the reception building of the emperor. In the centre of the building you can see the emperors throne in gold and reds, unfortunately a place where one cannot take any photographs.
After we had passed throught the throne reception room, we got to see a little video about the set up of the imperial city. Then we walked on and were able to look at the place were originially the forbidden purple city was situated (the quarters of the emperor, destroyed by bombs – which is why there is such empty area).
We moved on to have a look at the temples and areas where the priests honoured the ancestors of the emperor as well as prior emperors as well.
We entered into a courtyard where there were 9 urns placed. Each urn represents the remains of the former emperor. As can be seen below (they are quite large and elaborate, depicting all the things the emperor as achieved for the country through images and drawings of rice fields, warriors or the like.)
Next up was the building were the former emperors are being worshipped in. Again, no photos, no hats and no shoes. The temple does not include all former emperors, for example the emperor that died in exile in France has not come back yet to the temple, as well as those that only reigned for less than a year. Each emperor has his own altar or shrine where there are offerings (usually some cookie boxes neatly wrapped into stacks, fruit, incense and in some cases money), as well as his name and a picture. Some of these emperors were quite young!
We moved further through the temple complex and found this impressive gate.
Parts of the inner walls of the imperial city. You do wonder how it would have been like to have lived back in the days, or at least how it looked like with the people on the streets in their clothing with little umbrellas etc.
Part of these innerwalls and gates were damaged by gun shots from the fighting that happened in the citadel.
Then we had another look at the inner heart of the imperial city, the forbidden purple city. That like I already said unfortunately has been destroyed by bombs. All that remains are the wooden side alley ways in red and gold, and the lovely garden at the back of the complex.
We hopped back onto our motorbikes and headed to the hotel.
After my unfortunate nights sleep, I had booked a massage that I was looking forward to now. Sitting on a motorbike all day does do the best for your back... But hey. I was looking forward to it, but unfortunately it wasn’t really what I had hoped for. It was freezing cold with the air con on, the mattress opening for your head had quite sharp edges and the massage itself was alright until the point where the masseuse decided she would walk on my body. When she was about to walk over my back I refused and she continued without this step. I was unfortunately no longer relaxed.
I managed to relax a little bit after the massage and then got ready for an exciting dinner that was to come. We were invited to our tour guides house to meet his grandmother and to enjoy a dinner with his family and his neighbours.
It was lovely hearing about his grandmother and how her large family had coped during the several war times. She was still fit as a cucumber and very cheaky! Absolutely stunning to see!
The meal we received was absolutely delicious!
We started off with a pumpkin and peanut soup.
Recipe (for 4 people):
500 g of pumpkin cut into little pieces and boil for 2 hours.
300 g of fresh peanuts. Boil them for 10 minutes in hot water to remove the shell, then crush these peanuts into a powder (or perhaps in small pieces for crunch)
Then add to the boilt pumpkin and mix with a pinch of salt.
Next up – springrolls. Delicious!
Next we had caramlised pork in a clay pot. The pineapple gives this a lovely touch!
Next a salad made from morning glory or water spinach and a bit of sesame:
Next some banana flower vegetables with tofu.
We then enjoyed filled tomatoes with a pork stuffing.
Last up a soup made with star fruit for digestion. (Yes you heard right – star fruit!) We also had some pineapple with an amazing combination that I will try back at home - serve the fresh pineapple with some salt and chili! You will love it!
We then said our thank yous, met a couple more neighbours and small childeren oft he family and eventually returned to the hotel. I quickly asked at the reception whether they could supply me with another duvet or something else to make the mattress less hard, and only minutes after asking at the reception they came up to my room and supplied me with a memory foam mattress that just lay ontop of my bed. – Happy Carina
