February 9, 2012

• Vietnam Part 15: A taste of home.

  

  We start off our last day in Hue heading off to Dan Vien Thien An- a temple that specializes in a particular item.

  

  They’re the ones who make dau xanh, or green eucalyptus oil. This thing is a panacea- headache? stomachache? mosquito bites? Joint pain? Cures all of that. My parents always have a bottle at home and this is where they make the pure, potent stuff. I always wondered when I’m older how I’d be able to get this without my Vietnam connections- the stuff they sell in the States just don’t cut it.

  

  On the trees at the temple, they have jackfruit growing out of them. I had no idea this is how they grew. Jackfruit plants have a super sticky sap- my dad said when he was little, he had nothing better to do so he’d stick some of the sap on the end of a stick and catch cicadas with it.

  

  The next stop was to the Huyen Tran temple. My parents say it was built in honor of a princess that was sent to Cambodia to marry the king in exchange for land to increase Vietnam’s borders. They said the well-known story is sad, and wikipedia seems to indicate it as such.

  

  From there we headed off to the tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh. We learned that there was a secret “Vietnamese discount”. If you were Vietnamese, you got a discount off the regular admission at many historical areas. My parents bought the family’s tickets, but my brothers and I almost got stopped for not paying (we clearly looked like tourists) and my parents had to convince them we were their sons and we were with them. Granted, the “discount” is like saving a quarter so it’s not that big a deal, I just found it amusing.

  

  

  I was walking up the steps to the top and was pleasantly surprised to see this guy at the top of the steps looking back at me. Dogs out here are nice but mind their own business. I wouldn’t have minded if he followed me around, but he went back to doing dog things after he saw me coming up the steps.

  

  Statue of Emperor Khai Dinh. I don’t think he was very popular with the people after reading his wikipedia.

  

  We were back at the resort wandering around the nearby neighborhood looking for lunch when we got a recommendation to eat here.

  

  They had some pretty amazing banh beo, which is a specialty of Hue, my peoples.

  

  In fact, all these shrimp-based foods were incredibly good- the shrimp tasted super fresh and you could see it being ground nearby the tables as the nice owner prepared the food for us and brought it out as she made smalltalk with my parents. Another amazing meal in Hue.

  

  We decided to go on the river tour on the boat behind our hotel and when we got on, there was a little baby girl sitting on the boat! So cute. My mom tried to find something to buy from the lady on the boat but couldn’t find anything and just gave the mother some money to buy her kid something nice.

  

  It was our last day in Hue and so while my parents went out around the area shopping, the LilBro and I did some trekking of our own. We crossed the bridge in search of McDonald’s (couldn’t find any at all in Vietnam) to see if they had any weird menu items, but we ended up at KFC instead. Nothing different except this new chicken flavor which I think translated into “lime leaves”? It was pretty good- tasted a bit like lemon pepper mixed with kfc’s crispy seasonings. Not bad. The chicken sandwich was normal and I could have done without that.

  

  That night we randomly went to some restaurant which was just kinda okay in terms of food, but the upside is that there were a buncha little cats and kittens running around. I was eating dinner and looked down and saw this little guy staring up at me.

  End day eight.

  • 4:12 am
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