Day 6: Hue

Our next stop was Hue.  A city in central Vietnam. The city is known for their dragon boats which take tourists up and down the Perfume River to see the kings tombs... although I'm talking about this we did not actually do it ourselves... the cloudy cold weather deterred us slightly... we did go visit the old town and the Thien Mu Pagoda... It was a big city so we decided not to stay too long.

We arrived in the early afternoon so spent the day roaming the streets.  We started with the old citadel and old city.  When you walk up to the gates you are welcomed by a very large, somewhat intimidating flag that really makes you feel like you are being watched by Big Brother...

The city is mainly ruins now abut you can see how it would have been magnificent back in its day!  

While we were walking around the old city we suddenly looked up in front of us to see a gardener taking his pet ELEPHANT for a walk!  Well not sure about the pet part but he was gardening off the elephant just strolling through the gardens! Not a site we are used to seeing!

 After roaming around the city of Hue we realised it really was just another big city so decided to make the trek to Thien Mu Pagoda... We were both sick and exhausted from our last few days of travel and it was around 4km away so we decided to take one of the passenger bikes...

Not only was he biking with 2 of us but Amber and I are not light girls... he did have some difficulty on the slight hills and the 4km took him 45min but it was an experience we felt we needed to try while there!

At the pagoda Amber and I were taking pictures of eachother..  I was standing there while Amber took the picture.... 

when suddenly 5 boys ran up surrounding me wanting to take a picture with me!  They each took turns taking a picture with their own cameras so I had to wait there until all 5 had taken a picture... I dont know what it is but everyone here seems to love taking pictures with Amber and I.  Even the other day at the weekend market we had 2 women come with their daughter and each take a, well many, pictures with us...

It is at this Pagoda where the monk who burned himself in protest lived.  Below is the picture of his car and the monks that currently live in the pagoda.

"On June 11th, 1963 a Buddhist protest march was making it’s way down one of Saigon’s busiest arteries, Phan-Dinh-Phung St. The procession of around 400 Buddhist monks and Nuns moved through the city until they hit Le-Van-Duyet St where a light blue Austin that was part of the procession, the car seen in the background of the picture, stopped. The hood was raised as if the car had engine trouble while the nuns and monks in the parade quickly surrounded the car forming a circle of some seven monks deep. Thich Quang Duc a 66 year old monk calmly got out of the car and walked to the center of the circle sitting on a cushion provided for him. His religious brothers removed a jerry can of fuel from the car and proceeded to pour it over Quang-Duc who was now meditating in the lotus position. Quang-Duc with his Buddhist prayer beads in his right hand, then opened a box of matches, lit one and was instantly engulfed in flames. He did not move while his body was incinerated, while Malcome Browne the only western reporter present snapped the picture of the monk on fire".  -- http://www.famouspictures.org/mag/index.php?title=Burning_Monk

The car the monk drove to Saigon in.