Perfume River

The weather isn't any better.  It has drizzled on & off all day today with leaden sky.  It was a fleece and waterproofs day really.  

We went on an excursion up the Perfume River to visit Emperor Minh Mang's tomb.  Rather like the lady a couple of days ago who had her coffin prepared and ready he made plans for his burial but on a somewhat grander scale.  He spent many years planning his mausoleum on the banks of the Perfume River.  Lots of Feng Shui was involved apparently in the design of the elaborate temples and tomb together with water features.  Jane has blipped a picture of the gate so I will spare you more tomb pictures.

On the way,  we passed a lot of these barges laden to the gunwales with sand and gravel dredged from the river bed which is otherwise in danger of silting up.

We also stopped at a monastery where we were surprised to find that the totally vegan monks keep wild birds in tiny cages as pets.  Bizarre!