Vietnam~ Day 11- Rain, Rain, Go Away

The Citadel walls. The emperor abdicated to Ho Chi Minh's Revolutionary Government here in 1945. Prior to that only emperors and their concubines were allowed inside 'the Forbidden City'.  The penalty for tresspassing was death--- nowadays about three bucks will get you in.

My schedule today is coffee, coffee, tea, beer. Rain, rain, rain, too. The bleary-eyed Frenchman, another ersatz resident of the drafty front room that stares out into a now near lifeless alley, joins my regimen with the resigned air of plans abandoned. There's no leaving today, the city's soaked through and the rain keeps coming like crashing waves. First frothing with drizzle, then rising, and finally peaking at a showering crescendo as each rolls through.
 So we sit, talk shop,and mock one another along with the English expat. Li, the bubbling proprietress, sits slowly rocking to Vietnamese music crackling from a weathered black box. Her body ensconced in jacket, scarf, and a plethora of indistinguishable layers and fabrics, she's rolling a growing hill of cigarettes.
They're mine. Back-country papers I bought in the middle of somewhere that I was rolling just fine on my own until she shook her head and forcibly took them from me. Vietnamese hospitality: caring with an edge. These will likely last me at least a week.

Li and the Frenchman. Waiting out the rain.

Hue on a milder day.