If you walk by the river here, you are invariably accosted by people trying to convince you their boat trip is the best, but we went on the guide book recommendation and headed for Mr Cu at the Mandarin Cafe. This is a classic backpacker haunt, so it's cheap and cheerful, but they do a fab cold vietnamese coffee and also have a helpful travel booking desk. (We booked both a day boat trip and our onward bus to Hoi An, so felt like we'd achieved something the afternoon we arrived, no mean feat after that train!) The boat trip was only $5 each for a trip from 8am to 4:30pm, so is pretty good value.
We arrived at the cafe at 8am (was up before 7am on my hols - must be crazy) and were taken out to the boat. It tickles me to see how ramshackle things can be in other countries, knowing how uptight we are back home about avoiding accidents. Clearly there are few accidents here in the first place, or I'm assuming handrails and barriers would have been mandatory on all boats on the river. The barge had been converted so that it was a platform with plastic chairs in rows, under a corrugated iron roof with patio doors fencing the whole thing in. The speed of the boats is about walking pace, so it's not a rough ride, and the river is a slow meandering one, but still, it was certainly a change from what I've seen before.
The sights we saw were good. We saw three of the mausoleums, and each one was different. It surprises me in a country that doesn't have emperors any more, with communist flags and posters and uniforms everywhere, that there is still some semblance of historical interest for this part of Vietnam's past. The emperors varied a lot so were not unlike British monarchy - some useful and some not. The mausoleums were built according to the strict instruction of the emperor himself (line always followed the male branch, and when a male heir was not forthcoming, a son was adopted) and it could take years to find a site, much less actually build it. Sometimes the emperor lived there before he died too, so there could be an entire compound for wives and concubines as well as mandarins, etc. - hence the statues of mandarins.
All in all it was a very cultured day, and made me feel I actually learned something about the history of the country. We finished off the day by going out for imperial cuisine at a local "garden restaurant" and had our first bottle of white Dalat wine. Dalat is in the mountains so this is local grapes. I don't think it will export well, but not bad for a history with no viniculture before now, and we'll definitely have it again. For me it is mostly veg and noodles or veg and rice, but all the meals we've had have been very tasty and I'm pleased at how well we've eaten. Things may become trickier in Cambodia apparently, but for now, I'm a happy backpacker.
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