And So Begins the Second Week

More Hue by the numbers ... the public urination count is up by two, on the male side, after this morning's walk on the other side of the Perfume River and through the produce market at Dong Ba followed by walking to meet the husband for lunch. In a different vein, the most expensive meal we have eaten was last night's dinner at $15. It was not, however, the best meal we have eaten here. That one cost $11 (for two beers, two entrees, and two desserts), and my entree of grilled pork skewers with vegetables, rice pancakes, and peanut sauce was one of the best dishes I have eaten anywhere ever. We shall be returning to that establishment (Golden Rice) so that the husband can try it. Total number of steps taken the last eight days while wearing my digital pedometer? That would be 122,004 steps, which according to the rubric of 2,000 steps equaling one mile means that I have walked some 61 miles. Go, me!

I still have not taken the bicycle out, but likely will this weekend when the husband can rent one and come with. I like walking and being able to stop when I like and shoot photos. I am getting more comfortable with taking shots on the street and would like to refine those skills further. I am working on a little photography challenge for myself: an alphabet of Hue. You've probably seen posters with the letter of the alphabet "found" on butterfly wings or in architecture. I'm trying to find the alphabet in Hue. I've found some letters in the branches of trees, others on buildings, others on fences. Some letters, the easy ones, I've found in multiple places. Others, the harder ones, I have yet to find. I also found myself this morning photographing colors as I walked through the produce market.

When we were here three years ago, I did a post about how women cover themselves to block the sun. A woman on a bicycle or scooter wearing short sleeves is very much the exception rather than the rule, and often the short sleeves are part of a uniform. Women who are in short sleeves often wear those long gloves that go over the elbow, you know, the gloves society types unlike me wear, only they're not quite as fancy. The face coverings at times remind me of Islamic women. New from what I saw three years ago is the jacket in which the hood actually has a brim to help shield the face. These jackets also have something else I find even more amazing: The sleeves are cut with an extra flap to cover the tops on the hands on the cycle handles or handlebars. These flaps are held in place by little rings that the fingers fit through. On this morning's walk, I again gravitated to the outdoor portion of Dong Ba Market. There is something about the colors, the odors, the noises there that I compellingly attractive. Also attractive is that no one is calling to me, "Madam, madam, you want to buy this?" This is the part of the market more frequented by the locals.
The people-watching opportunities are extensive.
It's also interesting to see what they are selling, everything from dragonfruit to sliced vegetables of the type I've eaten frequently in just a week. And while most of what they sell in this row of the market is produce, there's also meat. And sometimes the people and what they're selling combine to make for an even more interesting photo. Yes, she is talking on a cell phone. And now I must go make myself presentable as we have been invited to dinner at a floating restaurant by the Rector of the College of Education at Hue University. I have yet to decide whether to wear my sandals or black leather Vibram Five Fingers. The Five Fingers make more sense in that we will be walking a ways to get to and from the restaurant. On the other hand, they may make for some explaining across the language barrier. Decisions, decisions!

Hue a Week in and by the Numbers

We've been here a week now, and are settling into some sort of routine, though I do my best to fight it at times. A professor who was here in the class cycle before this one bought a bicycle, and the husband had it brought to the hotel for my use. Consider, though, the photos I've posted of the streets here as well as the fact that the last time I rode a bicycle other than a stationary one at the gym was here, three years ago. I had plans yesterday of biking to a tiger-fighting arena I want to see that's a couple miles out in the country. It was all I could do to bike around the oddly shaped block on which the hotel sits. The seat on the bike was a bit low, only the front brake worked well, and my daypack wasn't conducive to balancing comfortably. It also occurred to me that I had not mapped out a way out of town on anything but the main street. Though it may surprise some people, I occasionally do the sensible thing which in this case was save the ride for another day when I feel better prepared. Instead, I took a walk.
Every two years there's a major festival here, and this year it falls while we're here. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about that given that it will totally change the character of this wonderful city. The locals are quite excited about it, though. When I mentioned to a shopkeeper that I had plenty of time to buy souvenirs later because we were here for a month, she eagerly asked if that included Festival. When I said it did, she smiled broadly and said she would be looking for me in the crowd. You can see more about Hue Festival here, including a video of highlights of previous festivals. The husband has been charged with finding out a complete schedule of events and how one might obtain tickets to them.

Preparations are well underway for the festival. I do expect that's why we've seen port-a-potties introduced here (more on this subject soon). It's also why they're doing a banner job of fixing holes in some of the more frequently traveled sidewalks and, as I discovered yesterday, putting up viewing stands at places where events will occur. Something will obviously be happening in front of the Imperial Monument, for example. Hue Festival runs from 7 April to 15 April, and since we are leaving on 16 April, we will be here for all of it. Stay tuned for details.

Being something of a data nerd, I've been keeping track of various things. See this picture? What I didn't include was the cyclo driver relieving himself just to the right. Public urination has evidently become something of a problem and not just in Hue. One of the English-language newspapers from Ho Chi Minh City had an article about it as an issue there. So, a week into our stay here, the public urination count stands at eight. Seven of those have been males, and one was a female. Most, including the female one, were under the cloak of darkness. It's not as if we search these out either, though I will admit that the way we walk to the neighborhood in which we usually eat lunch and dinner does not go down highly-populated, well-lit streets.

Three years ago, we amused ourselves at meals by noting the number of geckos on walls of restaurants, both indoor and outdoor ones. We haven't seen as many this time. The count after one week is only six, one of them furry. Yes, as we sat at a table on the porch on one restaurant, I watched a furry gecko climb a drainpipe behind the husband's head, and we both watched as it then scurried across to the other side of the porch on a pipe perpendicular to the first. The husband maintains it was a large mouse, while I insist it was a small rat. We saw some of its friends or relatives last night, peering out at us from a sewer opening, which is a bit more of where we'd expect to see them than on the albeit outdoor wall of a restaurant.

Finally, the count of incredibly useful things we wish we could bring home is at one, this water-heating pot. We pour in a small bottle of water, and before the two envelopes of instant coffee (which is better than any instant I've had in the States) can be emptied into the two cups, the water is boiling and afternoon coffee is served. I know that someone will comment that they have these contraptions in the States as well and that we're behind the times by only now discovering them here. What can I say? This is one part of a daily routine I do not intend to fight.