Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Our Honeymoon!!!

Huyen's sister Hoai and her husband spent their honeymoon at some natural hot springs near Hue. Having already seen all of the major attractions in Hue, Huyen and I decided to go to the hot springs on our one free morning. The hot springs were located about an hour outside of Hue in a very rural area. As we drove down a small road, passing farmland and being surrounded by mountains, I began to envision hot springs in the style of the Japanese onsens that I so dearly love.

That dream was shattered when we rode up to this sign:
I'm not sure if you can tell, but that picture is of a giant wave pool with lots of people sitting in inner-tubes. Huyen's helmet is actually blocking a picture of a cartoon blond-haired foreigner going down a water slide. As soon as I saw the sign, I said to Huyen, "This isn't exactly what I was picturing."

Luckily the natural hot springs weren't as bad as I then began to picture. It turned out that there was a man-made stream that was filled with the natural hot water. Each section of the stream had a different temperature. Huyen and I managed to take a soak in 40 degree Celsius water (104F). Considering it was probably 39 degrees outside, the water felt really really hot. There's definitely something to soaking in hot springs in the winter over the summer (although technically it's Fall here now).


(PICTURE: A Hot Water Sign.)

The hottest water was 68 degrees Celsius (154F). Yeah, that's pretty hot...which this snake found out:


Throughout the morning I kept saying to Huyen, "Happy Honeymoon!" Technically we had been married a couple of days before and this was our first trip together. Plus, Huyen's sister came to this place for her honeymoon so clearly it's a honeymoon destination. Sounds like a honeymoon to me!