Hue, Vietnam

January 13, 2012. Hoi An to Hue
    As I am sitting outside the room waiting for the cab to take us to Hue, noticed a group of ladies  busy working in a circle under the bridge next to the hotel. Upon closer inspection it seems they are running the chicken operation. Young women bring them 3-4 live hen held by their feet, squawking, swear they are yelling "help me!". The first lady grabs them and wrings their necks, the second one holds them to a fire, the 3rd plucks them and the 4th cuts them and bleeds them. Then they get a customer with a plastic bag and off they go.
   To get to Hus, the old French capital of Vietnam ,we hired a car and driver for $55 for the 3 hour drive. Along the way we drove through Da Nang, and passed a very pretty beach which ran for miles along the South China Sea with a backdrop of mountains fringed with clouds. This was the only snippet of sun that we have seen and it felt glorious. As we headed up and over the Hai Van pass we entered the clouds and very twisty turns and grades. The traffic was fairly light and we made good time passing the many villages and rice paddies. Hue is an old city with not many tall buildings. Those that are here are rather well proportioned . It is bisected by the Perfume River which is sounds prettier than it is. The draw here is the Citadel. A complex of temples and palaces which were built 200 years ago by the Emperor and occupied by his successors until Ho Chi Minh took over in 1945 . They were bombed during the 1947 French War and ,of course, by the US forces in the 60s. They are slowly restoring the site but it is a huge task. There is still a lot to see and we spent almost 4 hours wandering in and out and around. We watched a traditional music group practice for a show in the Royal Theater. For the ride back to the Camellia Hotel, which is a great place, we used a cyclo. Basicly this is a bike driven rickshaw. The guy piled me on top of Bert and away we went into the obscenely crazy traffic. More than once I closed my eyes sure I was about to be creamed by a motorcycle or cab. Have to say it was fun but not for the faint hearted.Dinner at the restaurant next door. Again $7 for a lot of food and it was pretty good. Bert has become a big fan of pho, the national rice noodle dish.