Saturday, October 6, 2007

Hue

Wednesday 26th September 2007
I woke up in a sweaty heap on the night train, at 8am and we struggled with our bags to the hotel (it's going to be interesting to see how Briony and I cope with luggage - and everything else - when we don't have the comfort of travelling with a tour leader and group!)
We realized only when we arrived at the hotel in Hue, that we didn't get all of our laundry given back to us when we picked it up yesterday, which was a real nuisance. Oh well, one way of lightening our load.

Then on to the large citadel in Hue. It's 200o years old and vast. Now, relatives of the old royal family who used to inhabit it, live normally in 2 villages nearby.
In the evening we went as a group to a special restaurant where you have a banquet - quite literally. We received costumes to wear - Briony was the queen! I asked if the costumes were unisex before picking one out and was told categorically that they were. But that wasn't strictly true, as I managed to pick out the only one designed for a eunuch (which for those of you who don't know, as I didn't, is a man who has had his balls chopped off) and was advised to pick out another...
Another in the group was the king, and he and Briony sat at the head of the table, which was in our own private room, which we walked to in procession! We also had live, traditional music played throughout our ten course meal. I really liked the music. It was not as good as that at the water puppetry, but was still entertaining. The singers jump up and down the scale unexpectedly and the sounds can be quite tonal, at times. The sound does not always seem to correspond with the movement of the mouth - appearing a bit like a bad ventriloquist. At the end there was a surreal moment when the musicians started playing The Godfather tune and auld lang syne!
It was a very fun evening.

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