Days 123-26: Hue

Bao Quoc Pagoda
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Arriving in Hue (pronounced Hway) after an uneventful flight we decide to have a lazy remainder of afternoon catching up on emails, booking the remaining bits of our holiday and wandering aimlessly looking for somewhere to eat and drink, the restaurant we picked out of the guidebook being found on a different street entirely, it having ‘moved’ a few months ago – worth the exploration however as whilst the food was so-so the owner is a keen photographer and the walls are covered in fantastic shots of life in Vietnam. By chance we ran into Bernie and Marco who we’d been at the Bia Hoi with, which along with seeing a family from out last hotel in this one, makes us realise we’re likely to see a lot of familiar faces taking the obvious north-south tourist route.

Citadel
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For our first full day here we decide to take the easy option and join a tour for the day to get round all the key points of interest. In the morning we bus round three royal tombs after a brief stop at a small roadside market selling incense sticks and conical hats. Although we didn’t buy anything it was, briefly, interesting to see women making the sticks and the variety of colours on display. The tombs are of the ruling dynasty of the 19^th to early 20^th century, by which time the seat of power for the now unified Vietnam moved south of Hanoi to a more central spot, Hue.

Hip Hip Hue

Citadel
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The first two (Tu Duc and Minh Mang) are quite grand and temple like in style, each with substancial water features (canals, man-made lakes, etc). Apparently the Emperor would build the tomb early in his reign to then use it as a holiday home for himself and his concubines before finally being laid to rest there, generally in a hidden location within the site (these sites are more temple complexes than one tomb!). Concubines had to live there until they died following the death of their King, which is at least better than in China where they were buried with the king!

Citadel
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The last one, both in terms of our visit and reign, Khai Dinh is for a puppet emperor of the French and the building is an odd mix of European palace and Asian temple. Didn’t really do it for us and I wasn’t overly thrilled about the 150 or so steps up to it as my legs are still killing me after that pesky watchtower in Hanoi.

After lunch we visited the old Citadel and within it the Forbidden Purple City (painted purple to clearly differentiate the no-go area for non royals). The site itself is substantial, similar I suppose in scale and almost in grandeur to Beijing’s, however much of it is less than ruins after the bombing campaigns during the 60’s & 70’s – some of the fields don’t even have foundations causing bumps in the grass anymore. Presently they are re-building the various homes and temples to re-create the walled city as it once was, something that would be very interesting to go back and see in 20 years time. As it is there’s still a good few surviving buildings and gates, in varying states of repair, to look at and get a sense of the place – much helped by our English speaking guide who proved to be pretty good here and at the tombs.

Citadel
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Next was a quick walk around Bao Quoc Pagoda and its grounds before boarding a distinctly non traditional looking boat for a cruise down the Perfume River back to Hue (think a floating porta-cabin with more windows). Perfume River is apparently so named for the flowers on the banks giving the air here a sweet scent. Didn’t really get a whiff of that, and unfortunately the weather was somewhat overcast so found this final part of the tour slightly underwhelming.

The following day we had booked a tour out to the De-Militarised Zone (DMZ) to get a fix of Vietnam war history and possibly see a few tunnels. Unfortunately my stomach picked this, and the next day, to be less than happy so pretty much stayed in and around the hotel for our remaining time in Hue. Still at least by the time we left with me feeling better my legs had been well rested and returned to normal too :-)