That is, until the lights went off.
As soon as the airport closed and everything got dark, the rats came out. First one or two, then more. I saw ten at least, and heard TONS of them. It was pretty gross when they were across the hallway in the food court, but when one appeared right under our couches, I couldn't deal with it. The boys stayed upstairs, but Danielle and I relocated to the main floor, where there were more lights and people. Unfortunately, we had to sit in desk chairs in the middle of the lobby, so it was clear early on that we would NOT be sleeping. This is how that made us feel:
Here's D doing an impression of the GIANT rat we saw in the downstairs food court. That thing could literally rip your face off.
After a sleepless, rat-filled night in the airport and a slight flight delay, we finally arrived at the airport in Hue, where Phong's family picked us up. They brought us to his sister's house, where they generously let us stay. That's when the feeding frenzy began. Vietnamese food is delicious, and there's nothing like homemade pho and spring rolls and fried rice. Not to mention all the meat that was great, I'm sure. The family proceeded to feed us giant feasts about every 2 hours for the next three days. Seen here: the toppings for the pho (remember that these are just TOPPINGS for the SOUP COURSE of a meal that included about 5 courses):
Phong's little nephew was scared of us, but also sort of fascinated. He is ADORABLE.
After we ate, we went to the village where Phong's parents grew up, and a lot of his family still lives. The village is abotu 45 minutes away from Hue. It was really amazing, and again his family was more than generous to us.
Another shot of the village. It was so interesting to see another side of Vietnam. Not that we had seen much yet at this point in the trip, but our plan was to mostly stick to the big cities, and this was very different.
In the village, we had round two of what would come to be known as Meatfest '09. It's rude to leave lots of home cooked food left over, but we were given SO MUCH SO OFTEN that it became difficult to even make it look like we ate most of it. Take a look:
The next day, we visited the Forbidden Purple City, a main tourist attraction in Hue. It was beautiful, but the weather wasn't:
Pretty light inside one of the buildings in the Forbidden Purple City (why is it purple? I have no idea):
Theater in the FPC, which I believe is still used as a real theater sometimes, which I believe is somewhat unusual:
After the FPC, we went to downtown Hue. Saw the market, went to a bakery, walked by some cool shops, like this one:
The next day, we went to some temples in the area:
Then we had a break for tea, coffee, and seeds. In all of Vietnam, but I guess mostly central Vietnam, people like to eat these little red seeds. You bite the seed to get the shell off, then eat the tiny little edible part inside. I don't know how many seeds we ate in total, but I'd say it was upwards of 20 million. It's also a great thing to do when you're bored on a bus/plane.
A note about Vietnamese coffee (not pictured here)- it's DELICIOUS. They brew it in individual servings, so you always get the freshest possible coffee, and the traditional way to drink it is with condensed milk mixed in (also usually over ice). It's strong and sweet and amazing. I bought one of the little coffee makers in the hopes of recreating it at home, but i'm sure it won't be as wonderful as it was in Vietnam.
Still to be continued...
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