Family in Hue

The good people

March 10

I am coming back to Hue, in central Vietnam, to take a vacation from my vacation. "How long do you think you will stay?" », I am asked at the hotel. A week, that I answer. It will finally be four!

Well yes, four weeks in the same place without pedaling!

Why so long a fat lazy? Did your butt hurt?

A little. But above all, for almost a year, I had rarely slept more than one or two nights in a row in the same place. And let's say I varied my bedrooms more than I ever imagined ...

A Bulgarian inn mattress with about XNUMX other bodies around, an ancestral French mansion, a two-room mud house in Tajikistan, a children's cabin in an Austrian tree, an abandoned house in the Bosnian countryside, under the Milky Way in Uzbekistan, in a schoolyard in Vietnam, in a monastery in Burma.

And between each of these nights, pedal. Go to the next town. Leave the country before the end of my visa. Here in Vietnam, having managed to get a three month visa, so I'm less pressed for time.

But above all, I was welcomed as if I were part of the family.

The Times Hotel

The hotel where I put my saddlebags is brand new. It was recommended to me by Louise, a Quebecer working in Hue. Having already stayed there with my father, and having loved it so much, this is where I decide to come back.

My official excuse is that I am still waiting for the equipment I ordered online several weeks ago. But as I wait for these things, I quickly become practically an employee and a member of the family.

Tan, aka Mr. Spicy, and brother of Trach.

It must be said that at The Times, it is practically the same. The family tradition in Vietnam is much stronger than with us. So when the young couple formed of Trach and Vinh decided to open this hotel, Trach's family came to the rescue. Reception, cooking, cleaning, everything is provided by a brother, sister-in-law or cousin.

Or by me.

Over the weeks I will work on their website, take pictures of the rooms for Booking.com, will provide reception in three languages (excluding Vietnamese!), help with manual laundry and room cleaning.

In just one month, I will see the hotel quickly become one of the most popular accommodations in Hue. From practically only one customer at the beginning, the place is already now at full capacity daily.

Family life

On a daily basis, I share almost all my meals with the family, I go to the grocery store or to the market with them, and the warm lobby becomes my living room.

More than a comfortable bed, it was that stable friendship that I needed.

One Tuesday, I am invited to a family party in the native village of Trach. Reason for the gathering: to celebrate the life of the deceased grandfather, on the anniversary of his death.

I meet the extended family there, just as welcoming, and I am taken for a boat trip on the lagoon adjacent to this fishing village.

Smoker in the village, brother of the deceased grandfather.

Family meal in the village, with a few flies on the rice.

My sisters

Gabrielle, Hieu, sister of Trach, and Allison, on a country tour.

In addition to my Vietnamese adoptive family, I make two sisters, Allison and Gabrielle. These two girls from Ottawa work in Hue for a few months, and also live in the same hotel as me.

With these two companions, we will tour the acoustic cafes and karaoke bars of the city.

But that's a next story!

It goes without saying that I highly recommend that you stop at the Times Hotel if you are passing through Hue. Here is their website, and their pages on Booking.com et Trip Advisor. And tell them you know me!