After cursing all the honking motor bikes (scooters with bigger tires) in Hanoi for a couple days, we've finally come to appreciate their versatility on a fun motor bike tour of Hue. It was a pretty frightening proposition to hop on the back of a motor bike after seeing the way they swerve and weave past each other on the streets. But our tour group "pre-screened" these drivers (still had to sign an extra waiver), so we got some good ones.
What an adventure! All 13 of us got our own driver who took us through city streets, back alleys, sidewalks (think Italian Job), dirt paths, and more. I lucked out with the tour guide, Tam, as my driver. He's a crack up. Quite fluent in English, American music, and jokes. Tam took us to the citadel, where kings have lived for hundreds of years. Then we hit some country roads and damns through the verdant rice fields. We stopped in to see a woman making rice paddy hats with interesting patterns sandwhiched between the layers of leaves. Then we had a tasty vegetarian lunch prepared by buddhist nuns.
Following lunch, we took some singletrack trails for a view of the river and Hamburger Hill. We popped over to the complex housing the tomb of one of the kings. An incense stick maker taught us how to roll an incense stick. A quick detour took us to an old coloseum where tigers were starved and tortured so elephants would triumph in their ultimate battle. Then we zipped over to a boat, which took us to a temple and pagoda. And then a river trip back to our drivers who took us back to our hotel.
Phew! With the scooters, we managed to pack in three times more stuff than we could have managed on big tour buses. And we'd never get the fear for your life exhileration that only a motor bike can provide.
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