April 3- Da Nang Viet Nam

Today in Da Nang was a good day. We docked this morning to the music and drums of several different groups who danced and played energetically for about 2 hours. The costumes were beautiful and the people were lovely and welcoming. One group of young women in beautiful purple long tops over white silk pants had multi-colored balloons that they released as part of their welcome.

We left the ship with our bus number and made our way through the vendors selling handicrafts and across a canal bridge to the bus. Our guide Anh met us at the bus door and after folks got on board we were off to Imperial Hue, a very ancient town on the banks of the Perfume River.

The drive along the narrow road carried us by some basic living and some colorful local markets. In the midst of it all we saw some absolutely beautiful three story fairly new houses with beautiful wooden windows and doors. These were mostly homes and shops of merchants who had their shops in the front and lived in the fancy 3 story part. We went by lots of cemeteries “from the American war.”

Our first stop was a visit to the Royal Citadel built in 1832. This was a huge complex 0f about 1000 acres all protected by a tall wall around the entire property. The citadel surrounded the Palace of Supreme Harmony which we found to be quite lovely. The temperature was about 84 degrees and very humid so we walked, perspired, and enjoyed the scenery.

The bus assistant offered us cool water and icy towels when we returned so that was really, really nice. All around at every stop all day were people selling all kinds of things…and they didn’t want to take “no” for an answer.

We had a great Vietnamese lunch and watched some amazing silk embroidery work being done by young women in a workshop.

After lunch we visited the tomb of Tu Duc who was the emperor of Vietnam for 35 years. It was laid out like the Forbidden City but was not nearly in as good a condition. It was a peaceful place to be.

Stopped and watched people making cone shaped hats- one half a day to create a hat that sells for $1.00. Hard to believe! I did buy a lovely wooden fan because I was dripping with the heat. It helped a lot!

We believe that Vietnam is the first country we have visited where there is NO form of public education. Parents must pay to send children even at the Kindergarten level to school. Our guide said she knew she was very lucky to have been born into a family where she could have her education paid through college.

Going to be interesting to see what we learn in Saigon day after tomorrow.