Day Two in Hue

And then it rained.....

As quoted by the immortal Forrest Gump when he wrote to his beloved Jenny:

"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways.
And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.
Shoot, it even rained at night..."

Today the heaven's opened up on several occasions leaving little time to explore the city. We got caught in an initial downpour scurrying into a small cafe for some shelter. Once the rains eased, we made for the local raincoat shop to purchase the latest in fashionable plastic pancho's called "Ao Mua" in Vietnam.

Michelle in a local cafe waiting for the storms to pass

As we returned to the hotel with our morning shopping, the hotel maids turned up to service the room. It would appear that they are masters in the art of towel origami as we watched them turn our 'kissing swans' from yesterday into 2 lazing dogs before our eyes. Amazing.....

The two towel dogs at their feeding bowl

The towel dogs being made

We then decided to go for a look at the local markets on the north side of the river. A quick cab ride to the market and whilst browsing the stalls, the skies opened again... This time, being brave, we walked back to the hotel with our Ao Mua's protecting us from the storms.... well so we thought. We got saturated, but still managed to laugh about it. The last part of the video below shows Michelle and Phillip crossing the bridge during the light summer showers.

The rains arrived.....

The rest of the afternoon, we generally lazed about the room listening to the downpour. A break in the weather around 6pm sent us out for an Indian Thali for dinner at a restaurant in the local precinct. It was a huge meal and all of us struggle to get through it. After dinner we arrived back at our room to find the origami girls had been in to change the since used two dogs towels into doves with chocolates....Nice touch.

The towel doves with complementary chockies!

We were hoping to organise a tour tomorrow to take in the citadel and ancient city, but the weather may kill this plan. If it's looking rainy again we may just cab it to the more important tourist sites around the City. Here's hoping.....