Motorbiking in Hue, Vietnam Adventure, Part 3

Hue: The place I was born, where my parents lived. It's like Vietnam's little secret.

Hue is located about mid-center Vietnam. I was very lucky to experience both sides of Hue, the countryside and the downtown core, or what I like to call, Motorbike Mania. It is unbelievable how I did not witness one accident during my trip there, with clusters of motorbikes and hardly any official driving rules. But by the end of my trip, I was very confident in the hands of local drivers, it was the foreigners on bikes that scared the bejeesus out of me though!

Hue, the Villager's Perspective.


Locals selling produce, meats, and fish at the local market.

My uncle's house. He lives in my late grandparent's house though where they are surrounded by people and lively neighbours.

I believe this is the picture I took of the house my dad used to live in. Look how tiny it is. The one exciting part though...its two steps away from the beach.

Fishing boats. My beautiful 19-year-old cousin who my dad tried to marry off with my travelling friend.

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I spent one night at my dad's little brother's house about an hour away by motorbike and 15 minutes by boat from the center of Hue. It was next to one of the only beaches in Hue. The area was quiet and the houses in the village were all built closely together that you often had various visitors just drop by everyday. I had a lot of neighbours drop by and say hi, and I visited various homes. I saw the house my dad used to live in and it is probably the size of my bathroom right now in my South Korean apartment.

In the countryside, it seemed people occupied themselves, or rather, based their daily activities on meal preparation. Unlike in more developed countries, where a dinner or breakfast could take less than five minutes to prepare, in Hue, it can take around two hours prep time. I found that as soon as breakfast was done, my aunt and cousins would get started on lunch, and when lunch was done, dinner was being prepared. Each meal had many hands to help prepare it from washing, chopping, cutting, boiling, fetching, and cooking, and it seemed a very sociable activity. All the girls focused on housework and meal making while the men did about shit all. I remember my mom and dad trying to raise me like that back when it was almost possible to teach me things. They would use phrases like "if you don't learn how to cook, how will you cook for your husband?" and my favourite line by my father when he was bent out of shape was "whats the point of having so many daughters if they cant do this for you!?"


Lighting incenses for my late grandma and grandpa.


Lighting incense at their place of burial. I'm surrounded by my cousins. Man, I must admit, I come from a beautiful family.

I spent a lot of time visiting tombstones and burial sites of my relatives, of my grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I had to light incense. It occurred to me that the Vietnamese treat their dead very respectably and in some circumstances their place of death is better than their place of living.

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Hue, City side


So after four days with my family, I was soooo happy to be on my own. This was taken about 30 seconds after I got dropped off by my uncle to begin my real Vietnam adventure.

Okay, I loved the quiet country of Hue, but I was smitten by the city life. It wasn't loud and chaotic and smoggy as Saigon. I found it to contain both sides, commercialism, night life, lights and noise, but at a comfortable level. Here, I spent my first day taking an eight hour motorbike tour of the DMZ. It was probably one of the best highlights of my trip. Getting on a motorbike and zigzagging past cars and trucks on both sides of the streets, sidestepping speed bumps, pedestrians, and dodging wild animals. The weather was perfect on this day, the sky teased us a little, threatened to rain, but it held off and we soared on the streets, wind in our hair, and dry clothes on our backs.

Hue is magnificent. It is a visual enchantment. Although it rained a lot there, the weather was pretty agreeable, the people were charming, and the atmosphere was welcoming. Like I said, its a mix of city and country, loud and quiet, and I could definitely see myself living there.

The second day in Hue, I took a motorbike city tour with a tour guide booked at Stop and Go Cafe. A GREAT little restaurant and tourist/backpacker's place that served me great Vietnamese coffee daily and entertained my eyes with the cutest Vietnamese man I ever met. The tour was great fun and the rain fell on us, but I was amused and happily wore a pink raincoat parka thing to sight see.

The night life in Hue was also rather fun. I remember on my last night there, I went to a bar called Brown Eyes, got happily buzzed, and then lost my friend in the middle of the night and wandered the streets at 3 am trying to find my guest house. The problem was I had taken a picture of the hotel name and street address but left my camera at the hotel. I thought that was a smart move on my part. So I wandered on deserted streets for about half an hour until I stumbled back to Brown Eyes. I had been chatting with the local club owner and we were pretty chummy chummy so he agreed to help me find my hotel after he finished closing up. We hopped on the motorbike and I realized I was quite famished after only having some spring rolls for dinner. So we went to an all night pho "booth", one of those outside vendors with tiny preschool sized tables and chairs. There we sat and they served us an assortment of Vietnamese food, all delicious, all probably contaminated with some bacteria as everything I ate in Vietnam led to tummy turmoil. But it was tasty and the lady serving us kept putting six Saigon beers by the table. I thought we had to pay for them although we did not order them so I obediently drank drank and drank. And when the six were up, she put six more, and I waved my hand no, I cannot possible have any more. Apparently, you just drink what you can, and pay for what you drink. Silly me. It was a rather nice night.

[Side note: Saigon beer tastes good warm. It is the only beer I have drank in my life that is decent tasting even when warm. They don't have refrigerators so beer is normally served in glass mugs with huge chunks of cylindrical ice cubes that melt ferociously, watering down your beer, so I normally just drank my Saigon as is. Delicious.]

I really enjoyed fraternizing with the locals, I learned a lot about their individual mindsets, and their drive as a collective whole. It took about half an hour to find my hotel and I stumbled home around 6amish.

The next evening, we packed our bags and left Hue.