Thiệu Trị Tomb

The motorbike ride from the Imperial Palace to one of several royal graveyards in Hue was the most exciting part of the trip.  If you don't believe me, start this clip at 2:21 to see us navigate a narrow back alley.  I gripped my i-Pod so hard to record it that I had trouble opening my fingers afterward!

Seap and the other drivers played cards while Tang guided us through the tomb of Thiệu Trị, the third emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty, the last to rule Viet Nam.

No friend to the French Catholic missionaries who initiated the colonization of Indochina, Tri, a Confucian scholar, ruled less than a decade before his death at age 40 in 1847. During his reign, the French asked Old Ironsides to rescue a missionary detained by Tri in an international incident that eerily forecast America's 20th century intervention.

Aside from this pooch, we had the place entirely to ourselves.

Thien staged this shot of the Sticky Rice Crew.  It required quickly running from one location to the other.  The time-lapse photography also grotesquely elongated my peace sign.

I stole this pose from Brett, an American Millennial whose facility with Instagram stories impressed as much as it frightened me.  What it's taken me months to do on this blog, he did in real time!

Don't tell anyone but I smuggled home a stray piece of green ceramic in my dopp kit.