Rest of Hue / First day in Hoi An

So, the rest of Hue involved visiting a temple, visiting a covered bridge and taking a boat onto a river, having dinner at Su's family's house again, and taking a very, very long bus trip to see some caves.


To start off our second to last day in Hue, we visited one of the closer temples.


A view from the temple of the surrounding countryside.


The monks were performing a ceremony at one of the temples we visited.


Su and I stopped to wait for Khanh and Zane at one point. I took this shot of the rice fields near the old bridge. I'll... probably need to straighten it a bit in photoshop once I get back. Anyway, this is how a lot of the countryside looks around Hue.


Su took us to an old bridge near Hue. We ended up taking a boat ride under the bridge and upriver for a bit.


Another shot of the bridge.


This was the dinner that Su's family cooked for us. Like before, they were much too kind. Two of Su's uncles (I think) who would be going to America soon joined us for the dinner. Afterward, one of them trounced Zane and I in Chinese Chess.


On our 5 hour van ride to the cave, we stopped at a Christian church. Legend says that, when Vietnam was being divided into two, Mary appeared at this spot (located in the south, to tell everyone in the north to migrate to the south before the DMZ was set up.


For our last day in Hue, we visited a cave system. You had to take a boat to reach the mouth of the cave. There were several villages on the banks of the river we took to the cave.


I think it's one of the largest ones in the world, though I wasn't entirely clear on what the guide was saying. Anyway, this is the entrance to the cave.Most of the photos I took inside the cave look like crap due to the lack of light and lack of a tripod. Also, while it was pretty, many of the cave formations were lit up by colored lights. The cave tended to have a pyschedlic look at times...


Crazy cave lighting!


Zane, Truc, and Van figuring out what to do in Hoi An. Specifically, they were looking at Truc's food list, and trying to map out where we would eat.


Hoi An has various historical sites. They have a rather frustrating ticketing system where each individual can only buy entrance tickets to the sites in packs of five. So, if you want to only see five sites, it's fine. If you want to say, see, six, you can't (or you'll pay a lot). Anyway, this is a picture of a traditional old house in Hoi An. The family who owned it were prominent traders until the course of the river changed and the importance of the city as a trading location fell.


Monkey guardian!! This is in the Old Japanese bridge in Hoi An.


One of the traditional temples we visited in Hoi An.


Incense sticks. I saw prayers attached to them. Apparently, these will burn for three days.


Wind cat!


Many people took boats onto the river during the lunar festival, and the city banned (most) electronic lights from the Old Town area. The place was also crowded with western tourists.


Van lowering her candle into the river. You were supposed to make a wish when you lowered the candles. One of the candles I purchased ended up having a real short wick, so I ran out of time and had to drop it in the river. It extinguished immediately upon hitting water (though, the candle didn't flip). So, Zane and I bought two more and have a competition to see if we could drop them from the top of the bridge. They, too, extinguished upon hitting water - what was amusing was the vocal disappointment of the people who were gathered around us who watched.


Van and Truc watching the line of wishes floating away while waiting to cast theirs into the river.


Van, Truc, and I. I think I probably look too crazily happy in this shot.