Last day in Hue

  Back on the bikes today to go to emperor Tu Duc's mausoleum and the Tu Hieu pagoda, which still has an active Buddhist monastery. It was about twenty kilometers round trip and I don't think I've ever been so hot in my life.  Now I'm really worrying about going further south.
     Once we were off the main road and had reached the monastery it was like stepping into a different world.  It was peaceful, and quiet.  The stone temples were covered with mosaics of blue and white broken pottery and in a nearby room I could here somebody lecturing in Vietnamese.
     Through a room filled with wooden tables and chairs there was a courtyard filled with bonsais.  A moat around one was filled with tadpoles, another one was wrapped in string to hold up the branches.  Dogs lounged in the sun photogenically, but the camera had run out of batteries and we left the charger in Catpa so though it's being mailed to us we have to wait until Hoi An to pick it up.
     It was hilly to get to the mausoleum and we sat in the shade for a few minutes to read about the emporer.  Tu Duc had the mausoleum (originally his private park used as a refuge from household and national concerns) built in 1867, a time when the Western world was particularly interested in colonizing and exploiting Vietnam.  He was more given to poetry and introspection than governing but that didn't prevent him from being tyrant enough to the workers building his retreat that they rebelled and were ruthlessly repressed.  He found time between his poetry and study for fifty-course meals.

     Once we walked through the houses and saw the tomb and his autobiographical and self-critical stellae we sat outside and had pepsis for a little much-needed hydration and sugar.  I really didn't want to get on that bike again, but once we backtracked uphill to the fork where we took the path back to hue it was mostly a flat path home.  For lunch we went back to the vegetarian place of yesterday and had basically the same thing.  In our defence they only offered two different sauces.
     Afterwards we walked around the stores on the street for a little bit and I found a pair of rayon capris that are both exceptable for temples and pagodas and a million times cooler than jeans.   This area is also the center of tailoring and so I'm getting a skirt made and even my cheap mom is getting a blouse made.  (She okayed that sentence).  We'll do a little more shopping in Hoi An--my dad's considering a couple of summer suits and I might be able to design a dress for my cousin's wedding.  I wish we had done a little more research about what is acceptable to wear but at least now we're better prepared.