I think I was pretty lucky to have fallen asleep - otherwise, I would have had to witness the little 2 year-old boy sitting behind me throwing up all over the floor of the bus! We have a lot of children on this trip with us - probably about 10 of them. There is a little chubby boy who is such a little rug-rat - yesterday, at one of the pagodas in Hoi An, he actually jumped into one of the fountains! Being soaking wet, his mother removed his pants and diaper and let him walk around the entire town bare-bottomed. Every time the little boy tripped over his feet because he was running so fast in front of the group, you could hear all of the men gasping and squirming (this happened quite often throughout the day).
Anyway, I digress. When I finally opened my eyes, we had already arrived at the tomb of Khai Dinh, who was one of the emperors during the Nguyen Dynasty. Apparently he had 12 wives and no children and it was rumored that he may have preferred the company of men instead ;) (so we have something in common haha). His tomb is enormous and is quite the sight - such are the tombs of many prominent figures in such poor countries!
My mother sat this one out again because of all the climbing of stairs and walking. She sat in the shade under a tree at the base of the mountain (the tomb sits on Chau Chu mountain just outside of Hue). It's quite a beautiful and elaborate and our tour guide told us that the architecture is unique even though it is approximately a century old - the emperor incorporated many different styles from all around the world.
Here are the outer courtyards, including the stone guards:
Here is the actual tomb inside:
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