A restart as somehow this blog post got disappeared! Katy, Bob, David and I met up at 7:30 for breakfast in the hotel. This breakfast buffet was much more Vietnamese in the types of food offered but the nice woman there was willing to make some scrambled eggs for me and for Bob.
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| Entrance to the hotel in Khe Sanh |
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| Some of the stunning koi in the rectangular pond just before the steps up to the hotel. The bright yellow ones looked like satin. |
We left Khe Sanh around 8:30 and headed to Hue. It isn’t too far but we took the long way staying close to the river in hopes of a few bird sightings. The river is dammed in a number of spots which was interesting to see. We stopped at first on the side of this busy 2-lane road - dump trucks cruising past etc., but didn’t hear any bird song. We did walk past a group of people harvesting cassava root between the guard rail and the cliff down to the river! We drove on a ways and stopped again where there was better tree cover and suddenly there was lots of bird song and many birds flitting about the trees. I spotted what was a Black-crested Bulbul which has dramatically bright yellow body and a black head with crest.
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| Group of people harvesting cassava root |
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| Birding right on the side of the busy road |
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| One of the great graphic road signs we see along the way |
We continued on this road through many small villages but there was little bird action. At one point, Katy noticed some women washing laundry in a side stream so we stopped to take some pictures. We also watched two women chasing a group of goats away from their vegetable patch though they were having a tough time with the wily goats!
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| Women washing clothes in the stream |
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| Fuschia like flower that was growing in front of a small village house |
We got to Hue and arrived at a most spectacular hotel where we are only staying one night. It would be easy to spend many nights at this oasis - the Pilgrimage Village Boutique Resort & Spa. We found our lovely rooms and then met up in the open air restaurant for a late lunch. Then Katy and I walked the grounds to stretch our legs and explore . There are 3 pools with the first being one of the biggest pools I’ve seen at a hotel. There is also a kids pool called the Peanut pool and a pool that is a quiet zone where no kids are allowed. The surroundings are really gorgeous. They also offer a number of benefits with each night you stay there that are pretty unusual - free items from the mini bar, 3 items laundered for free etc. I took them up on the free laundry and as I headed over at about 4 PM to take it to the lobby, a staff came up on a bicycle and said she would take care of it for me! She filled out my form and took the bag away. I hoped that it would get back to me before 7:30 tomorrow. It was actually neatly folded in a wooden box in my room after I returned from dinner!  |
| Open air lobby |
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| Lunch |
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| Beautiful and very large pool |
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| Lobby bar where we also got a free drink between 4:30 and 6:30 |
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Fantastic banana tapioca!
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We met up for dinner again in the open air restaurant and enjoyed another meal. We will have breakfast in another restaurant by the huge pool in the morning and then have a tour of highlights in Hue.
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