The GCW Tour, Vietnam: Wrapping Up Hue

Currently packing up our gear for the short, if potentially scary, flight to Saigon. Just have time to post a final rundown on Hue (no pics though -- sorry).

As mentioned, we spent our second full day here on a driving tour of the DMZ. Since The Vietnam War can still be a sore subject I won't bother with a full rundown, except to say that the tour was rather interesting. It's not a area of history I know a lot about, so a lot of the stories were new. Most interesting is the fact that pretty much everything we saw was basically recreated. Little was left after the war -- unexplored ordinance notwithstanding -- and what was left was quickly scavenged by farmers. Over the last decade or so they've apparently been trying to replace some of the more interesting aspects of the period.

It was also very interesting hearing some of the guides stories about leading tours that included returning American soldiers.

After the DMZ Tour, we had our most interesting Vietnamese meal so far. We were picking up our clothing at the tailors so asked the girls there what they recommended for seafood. "Not here" was about the most definitive they could be, but they gave some vague directions to another part of town. So we rode off on our hotel-provided bicycles.

A quick aside: if you find yourself in Hue on a summer evening, borrow a bicycle. It's very pleasant. You're moving too fast for the street vendors to bug you, but the scooter riders who pass by will look over and say hello. It's a great way to get around after the heat passes. Anyway, back to seeking dinner...

We did not find any restaurants where the shop girls had directed us, but we did find a night market: about five blocks of people selling clothes and sunglasses and myriad other items spread out on the grass and sidewalk with lots of other people milling around shopping. Think impromptu flea market. But no food.

But past the night market we found the English Center -- "English for everyone" -- with two girls chatting out front. So we stopped, confirmed they spoke (some) English, and asked where they'd go for seafood. After about five minutes of mostly Vietnamese chatting and some failed attempts at providing directions in English, they decided that the best plan would be for the girl on the scooter to lead us to the restaurant (woohoo!). That worked very well.

So we found ourselves at a seafood restaurant with lots of Vietnamese people eating, absolutely non other foreigners, and waitstaff with questioning looks on their faces. Here we (re)learned four important lessons:

Oops, time to run. I'll have to finish this later...

...Okay, now we're at the Hue airport waiting for our delayed plane and the Lucky Cafe network has finally let my iPad connect so I can finish my story.

So, four lessons from the seafood restaurant:

First, Vietnamese people are so incredibly friendly. Beyond the woman who led us there, there was a customer at the restaurant who spoke English so when she saw us struggling she jumped up to help. Then, when Sib2 pointed at some shrimp in front of someone at her table, indicated he wanted some of those and was told they'd run out, the guy had the ones he'd ordered sent to our table. How nice is that?

Second, whoever said Vietnamese food isn't spicy LIED LIKE A RUG. I could barely eat the things we wound up ordering. It was good, but it took a long time for the feeling to return to my lips.

Third, fish can be as colorful one the inside as the are on the outside. This was the kind of place where you point at the fish swimming in a tank, they grab one, toss it in some boiling soup stock, then scoop it out onto a plate. You get the little devil skin, head, guts and all, and it's up to you to figure out what's edible.

Last, Sib2 and I are apparently very entertaining. There were a lot of people pointing and laughing as we tried to make our way through dinner. 

And with that, we're pretty much at the end of Hue. If and/or when the plane arrives we'll be on our way to Saigon (as everyone here calls it)/Ho Chi Minh City (as it's called on the map).