Nguyen Palace and Ngay Ram

Today we visited the palace complex inside the walls of the citadel. Our fearless tour guide, Phuoc, guided us into the main reception hall for the kings and then around past some of the lesser buildings. Like the Nguyen kings themselves, the koi (Asian carp) who live in the ponds inside the palace eat very well, as tourists can buy a 10 cent pack of feed and throw it to them from the bridges over their pond. Scuppy of course was thrilled to see so many fish all at once and we bought extra feed so she can feed the little scrappy koi who live in our hotel pond just next to the outdoor restaurant where we have breakfast.

Today-tonight is the "ram" or full-moon day of the lunar month, a day that is typically associated both with services at the Buddhist pagodas in town and families making offerings to their ancestors. It also coincides with the day that Uncle Nghien's father passed away, so besides Tet each year, his other big party at the house is on July 15th in the lunar calendar for the memory of his father. I was a special guest at this party where he invited all of his friends, some 15 men his age plus me. These are the pictures of Chu Nghien's parents and grandparents. He burned incense and arranged some paper replicas of things his father liked that were to be burned at midnight. The photo behind Ong Ba Kieu is of Nghien's grandfather dressed in the traditional dress of Hue people before suits were fashionable.