Beyond Marrs

Hue, Vietnam—a place of ancient wonders, amazing sights, smells, and sounds, and serene river scenes. We visited the ancient citadel, with old buildings decorated with ceramics and colored artfully. We explored many buildings, oohing and aahing at many different things: bright mosaics, lush gardens, interesting exhibits, crumbling walls, and beautiful complexes. We stopped for a little while, and then it started to rain. Very. Very. Hard. Unfortunately, Willem had lost his umbrella about 10 minutes before, so he and I had to share my tiny, cheap, literally falling apart umbrella in the slanting downpour. It was very refreshing, though, after many hours of intense heat. The rain died down, and we exited the citadel, on our way back to our temporary home.

The next day, we were starving, so we went to the market to get some food and explore. We wandered aimlessly through what seemed like endless stalls selling everything from noodles to toys to dried fruits to jewelry, all side by side. We bought several things, including turmeric vermicelli noodle with mystery sauce and unknown meat, bánh ép, a Vietnamese crepe with bacon on top, dried mango probably grown right down the road, dried salted plums, a Vietnamese equivalent to candy, and bún bò Huế, which translates directly to Hue beef vermicelli. Mom ordered the turmeric vermicelli noodles from a lady selling them from a basket. When mom asked, “What meat?” The lady tugged on her ears and patted her tummy. Apparently, it was pig’s ears and pig’s stomach. If you could have guessed, we didn’t eat those parts. I ordered the noodles too, but without anything on them. Or so I thought. The lady scooped some noodles, and then she pointed to the sauces. Mom said, “Oh, no, no.” Oops, too late. The woman pinched her fingers close together, the universal sign for “just a little,” and then dumped on a heaping spoonful. Oh well, just eat around it, I told myself. Too late again. The lady said, “oh,” and then took it back and then mixed it all in. Oh, well. I took a readying breath, and then took a bite. It was actually pretty good. I am grateful that the woman took the time to make my meal. 

The next day, we got a Grab taxi to an abandoned water park that we learned about via The Atlas Obscura. The park was built in the 2000s, but it never opened. The main part of the park was a dragon building in the middle of a lake. You can go inside of the dragon and onto a platform in the mouth. There were lots of different types of graffiti, even though we only saw about 5 people. To get in the park, you had to pay a man for the locals, who cleaned the area. Me and my brother had been wanting to go there for years, and now our dream came true. Hue was a very interesting place to visit, and I enjoyed our time there very much.

P.S:

Happy birthday to Al Chartier, one of our family’s greatest friends and one of the kindest people on the planet. I hope you had a good one!

Happy birthday to Sarah Billmeier and Michael Swanwick, some of the smartest, strongest, nicest people I know. Happy Birthday!