Huế, Vietnam - Day 3

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 Good Morning! 

Up early again, checking mail and news. I also had a few updates to the do for the library website today.

Yesterday afternoon after the Imperial City tour, I made a train reservation for my next destination, Danang. I am a cheapy, I have taken buses for all my travels in Vietnam so far. Even booking on sleeper VIP buses the tickets are less than soft seats on the train. The Danang trip is short, less than 3 hours, so I will take a train there to get my train fix. It leaves at 9:40 am giving me time to shower and eat breakfast before going to the train station. I will probably go via Grab electric car.


Later in the day I went back the restaurant I ate at the day before. This time I got the fried fish. It came with vegetables, a small piece of egg omelette, squash soup, a little chili water on the side and rice. 30,000 dong ($1.25 usd). I really like being able to get less expensive, no, let's tell it like it is, "cheap" meals and accomodations. It lets me save money to do occasional tours and have money in reserve for a nicer stay and meals on occasion.


My sense of direction sucks. This restaurant is only 3 blocks away and I still managed to lose my way and had to resort to using Google maps to get back to my home stay.

Google translate is invaluable for translating menus. Some places have english translations, but most, especially places outside the tourist areas, do not.

Here is a link to a short video from my latest ride on a grab motor bike. https://youtube.com/shorts/BjWFme6J4so?si=aSQVDmH1vFFPFbWV

https://youtube.com/shorts/BjWFme6J4so?si=aSQVDmH1vFFPFbWV
In Google translate all that needs to be done is select the original language, and the language to translate to. Then camera icon, point the camera at the menu and instantly you have an english translation of the menu. Try it on the picture of the menu here.

I took my first extended travel in 1989. Back then there was no internet, no translate, just printed guide books like Lonely Planet to decide where and what to visit.  I would rip out the relevant pages of where I was going and throw away the rest of the book.There was no booking.com or AirBNB to reserve lodging. You just arrived at a new place and went to a place listed in the guide book, hoping they had space available.

I was talking to another guy that mentioned he just got a hair cut yesterday for 10,000 dong (less than $.40 usd). Needless to say, cheapy me is going to look for the place today to get a haircut. I don't have enough hair left on my head to worry about style. I just need to tell the barber number 1 or 2 adapter for the electric clipper.

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