Left Hue for the Village of Huong Phuong in the morning.

The trip from Hue to Huong Phuong took about 5 hours in a “bus”.  We managed to arrange for a 10 seater vehicle to pick us up from the street corner where our hotel was.  It cost us about $6 each to travel over 200km.  It would have taken much less time if our bus didn’t function like a bus cum courier service, stopping to pick up people along the way and delivery items to people waiting along the way.  The route was mainly along the coast, and there were patches of two narrow lanes.  Our driver passed (rather slowly!) on double lines and blind corners…..  Whew!

We got dropped off at Ba Don, for a taxi into the village.  It was about 40C when we arrived at Ba Don some 10km away from the village.  The taxi cost more than the bus had it not been for the fact that there were two of us (ie just over $6 for two, and the bus, over $6 x 2)

I haven’t had much time to do photography but managed to click a few interesting shots.  The nuns in the village run a Day care centre and also an orphanage.  They sell duck eggs, altar bread, run a pharmacy and many more ventures.   I think it is because the Orphanage costs them over 1 Billion Vietnamese Dong a year.

Siesta during the hot hour of the day in the day care centre

Life in the village is simple.  The pace is slower, and the people friendlier.  The night sky is clear and not being in a city, there is not too much ‘light pollution’ of the night sky.  I wanted to do some star trails but at when the temperature is still over 30C at 10pm, I gave it a miss and stayed in my air conditioning room of 25C with a fan switched on!

Update: day 2

Still super hot.  Visited the Orphanage.  Had a look at the various farming activities in the village.  Then had a feast with the sisters, meeting up with parents of Vietnamese priests in Christchurch…..