Royal dinners and motorbikes

Hello all
The last night and day have been pretty fantastic. Last night we had a royal feast where we dressed up in traditional costumes. The food was beautiful. I don't mean that from a taste point of view predominantly, though it was fairly tasty, more from an aesthetic point of view! Think birds carved out of carrots, flowers, hens carved from tomatoes and beautiful dumplings made to look like the feathers in a peacock's tail. Too pretty to eat, really! But eat we did, all seven or so courses. Lovely tasty beef rolls, spring rolls, soup, chicken in broth, coconut jelly... gah! Really extremely full afterwards. Perhaps I won't come back from the trip skinny!!!
As for the costumes.. i was a concubine (yes Matt, I know what you're thinking) and wore a pink robe with a red headpiece. It should have been pink but I have a frighteningly large head, even for a westerner (apparently!) The bloody thing was still a little small and flopped alarmingly toward my meal every time I nodded. Makes for more graceful eating I suppose!
This morning we went on a dragon boat and a motor bike tour of Hue, which was fab! :)) A little bit of grit between the teeth never hurt anyone, now, did it!?!! (don't worry, I didn't fall on my face, just the kind of grit that eventuates when sweat, sunscreen, wind and pollution collide, mmmm). I also didn't actually steer the motorbike Mum, so don't stress about that. And I wore a helmet. And I have certainly made it back alive!! lol
We toured all the tiny backroads of Hue, waved at children, visited some pagodas and temples. It ended at an orphanage, which was the stuff my nightmares are made of. I am going to send them books when I get home (dual language Vietnamese and English of course). I didn't cry, but wanted to... think beds pressed together with no mattresses or toys, children with scabs looking after smaller children, it was horrible. But good to see, I think. That was apparently one of the nicer ones. I bought them a couple of little toys so I guess that's a start. You can understand the likes of Madonna wanting to take them home.
Anyway, free internet has queue and I really need to go and buy some (more) water.
Love lots
D x x