The ice cold coffee from above was actually given in very small portion at first. We had to stir a big piece of ice in the cup, wait for it to melt before u can have a full cup of coffee! Could you imagine how thick the coffee was?
Started a fresh day at the old capital of Vietnam at the imperial citadel of Hue. An ancient building of chinese architecture from the Nguyen dynasty, it is similar to China's 'Zi Jing Cheng'. Antiques from the dynasty as well as black and white pictures of those times were displayed.
The building is also characterized by the dragon and phoenix, typical of a traditional chinese structure.
This is also a citadel which WeiYang has conquered back home on his PC game and we are sure that this visit has definitely brought back plenty of nostalgia.
Determined to cut cost for this adventure trip, we, or rather the finance minister Mr Goh Wei Yang, has made a brave call to walk to our next destination, the Tu Duc tomb. The approximate distance of 2-3km was one of the worst ever estimates made. Under the sweltering and burning heat of the sun, with practically no clouds in the sky, we started trekking our way to the tomb.
The mixed vegetable rice
Assuming that we were somewhere close after 2 hours, we decided to stop at a local eating place for some rest. Ordered mixed vegetable rice, a local eating style adopted by many shops. At just about SGD1.75, it is rather cheap. This small little local experience also made us understood more about Song's pickyness about food.. and this attribute is not ideal for a traveller my friend!
The short rest recharged our 'batteries' and we continued on our quest to the Tu Duc Tomb. We stopped by a petrol station to ask for directions and got the most depressing reply of the day or maybe the whole trip. The guy told us that the Kai Dinh Tombs is still 5km away whiles the Tu Duc Tomb 2km away! This is just GREAT!
A little reminder that by this time we have already walked for over 2 hours with no form of shelter. It was a really tiring journey but perseverance kept us going and we finally reached the Tu Duc Tomb after 3 full hours of walking, moaning and complaining. Along the way, we kept thinking why there were no other tourists walking with us to the Tombs and we finally understood that upon arriving.. walking is almost impossible! Please dont even try.
Frankly speaking, SGD4.50 entry fee to the tomb is not exactly worth it. On a personal note, it is just another place where the emperor used to live in, nothing spectacular nor special about its architecture. It was a rather adventurous journey using the not-drawn-to-scale map, bringing the trip to yet another level of budget.
Evidence!!
Took the cab out to the perfume river only to realise that we have trekked for more than 7km in those 3 hours! The next hour was spent on a boat trip down the perfume river. After rejecting several scams along the way, we finally settled on one boat which costs us 50k VND for 4 people. It was a slow, relaxed boat ride to see the river banks and activities, somewhat like a less busy Singapore river. Just a side note, our dear Song actually broke a chair on the boat given his beefy physical size. One could see light in the eyes of the owner as it just meant another opportunity for them to tap into our money reserves. True enough, we were asked to pay 30k VND for it and all our fightings against scams were lost at this very moment.
Went back to the hotel to unload the TEN 1.5 litre bottles of water we bought before proceeding on to a walk down the isle of the perfume river at night. Tried the Hue speciality food, Bun Bo. Local beehoon with beef and cow's blood which is somewhat similar to Pho, the only difference being in the taste of the soup.
The first of the 4 'kems' we bought
Now comes the interesting part at the bank of the river. Tried local Vietnamese ice cream and the first stall which we bought from charged us 3k VND for one. The ice cream tasted like sorbet, a rather plain but refreshing taste. Highly recommend this for anyone going to Hue.
Bought it for a second time at the next stall because it was really too good! Gave 20k VND and the boss kept it, seemingly reluctant to return any change. Stares from Ang and Kai meant that he returned us change and it was the same price as previously, 3k VND each. However, this stall provided 3 scoops of ice-cream instead of 2 from the first stall. Something was fishy.
Tried a 3rd cone, this time round from a little girl of about 12 years old. She adopted the same trick of returning change slowly, hoping that we would leave without the change. However, she was so wrong as she was dealing with 4 backpackers who could even starve on the train just not to get scammed for something as little as SGD0.10. Change she did give us in the end, and a cone now cost only 2.5k VND. FM Goh still felt that something was amiss as the little girl returned the change with a rather cheeky and strange smile, one in which WeiYang thinks she is testing the system.
Eager to find out the true price of one ice cream cone, we thought of a wonderful trick. Since our skin colour could easily disguise off as a Vietnamese, we decided to buy a 4th cone from the next stall. This time round, the buyer will just use his fingers to represent the number of cones to be bought, pay, take change and leave without speaking a single word. True enough, WeiYang's 6th sense proved to be right as the price of a cone is 2K VND and we had just been cheated consecutively by 3 different stall owners! What saddened us more was the cunning little girl who had tricks up her sleeves at such a tender age. By the way 3k VND is slightly less than SGD0.25, even though we each ate 4 cones, it didnt cost us even SGD1. It was a cheap way to buy a valuable experience.
Now that we knew the trick to buy stuffs, we decided in turn to test the system by buying sugar cane juice. Adopting the same approach-choose-pay-leave tactic, we discovered each packet of sugar cane juice cost us only 3k VND! It was only now that we realised that we were most likely scammed at other food stalls that didnt had price stated nor a menu. Though food price is still very cheap despite the raised price, it just didnt feel good to be cheated of your money, ain't it?
Day 12 - Hoi An
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