Lazy Friday Eating and Shopping

Today is the first of three days off in the middle of the program. A kind of Hue vacation. We decided to lie low and not travel this weekend, so in the morning we headed out to Hue's first franchise, the Pho 24 noodle shop, an airconditioned shop that is super-clean with California-style pho soup and really delicious coffee. The meal was good, despite the completely empty restaurant. Locals say its outrageously expensive at 24,000 vnd per bowl. Thats more Saigon prices than Hue where a bowl of the local noodle specialty in the very best place is 10,000 vnd. But for aircon, super clean counters and plastic fruit, there is that extra markup.






Scuppy decided to be outrageously cute after our very relaxing and totally delicious, expensive bowl of noodles (about 1.50 usd). These two shots are my favorite from her Pho 24 photo shoot.














Upon returning to the hotel, Scuppy met one of the guys working in the office at the gate of the hotel with a lizard he'd caught just before. Scuppy petted it while the guy held its head between his fingers ina way that didn't hurt the lizard but kept it very still - the way a farmer with experience catching and killing chickens might hold an animal. Like me, Scuppy was very impressed with his skill. Another day filled with new wonders.




I tell my students not to waste a lot of money on cheap souveneirs in Vietnam but to wait until they see something really cool that will retain its meaning for them for years to come. A well-placed purchase of $100 for a piece of art or other item is much more interesting than so many straw hats, wood statues, and ho chi minh t-shirts. Well, today we finally found our special item for the summer. We are getting kites! We stopped in to visit an older man who makes kites only to find that he passed away 5 yrs ago and now his nephew continues the tradition in a house next door. Hue has always been famous for kite-flying and kite-flying has for centuries been a favorite past-time in Asia. Besides beautiful hand-assembled kites such as this phoenix kite, the kite-maker also has produced a dragon kite that includes over 100 pieces and is over 70 meters long. I decided to purchase one of these kites and hope that with a good 30-knot wind I might be able to start some ridiculous new fatherly tradition with Xuan Anh and others that involves trying to get a 120 foot-long kite to fly. From what I have seen it involves a Dad or kid holding the string, a smaller kid in the middle, and a Dad or kid in the back keeping everything stretched out. We've also purchased smaller butterfly and peacock kites for our arsenal of low-wind flyers.