Day 63 (May 07, 2013): Hue, Vietnam

The Quick Facts:

* Took the overnight train from Hanoi to Hue, which is a city in central Vietnam set on the banks of the Perfume River; it rose to prominence in 1802 when the ruling family of southern Vietnam (the Nguyen Dynasty) succeeded in unifying the entire country, establishing a Citadel in Hue and making Hue the capital for all of Vietnam
* Spent one day taking in the sites of Hue, which include the commanding Citadel and the many glorious and impressive tombs of past Nguyen Dynasty rulers
* Hue also serves as a launching point for tours of the DMZ (from the Vietnam War) which will be the subject of a separate post
* Stayed at the Orchid Hotel, a modern hotel set near the main streets in central Hue – a very nice place, everything was clean and the aircon/wifi both worked well, and the staff were more than friendly – I recommend but note that we were again the beneficiaries of off-season rates

The Good:

* The tombs are impressive, on par with the temples of Angkor in terms of their architectural feats and general beauty

The Bad:

* Another banner installment of “how are you going to rip me off?”  I feel like I’m on a game show. “Rod, how will the good people of Vietnam cheat Andy today?” “Well, Wink, today our contestants will be told their taxi is to be paid by the meter, only to get to the destination and told it is a fixed price (that is of course higher than the meter).  And, as a bonus, yet another person will agree to a price for a trip and then claim, at the end, that the price was ‘per person’ and not ‘total’.”  Both of these things happened to us, which brought me to my boiling point and resulted in arguments both times.  I should note here that most of the people we’ve met in Vietnam are lovely, generous, honest people.  These experiences are made worse in that the people perpetrating them really do give a bad name to otherwise beautiful people that we’ve enjoyed getting to know.

Our trip to Hue began the previous night on the overnight train, which of course requires the now-customary shot of our train and carriage.  This time we shared a room with two nice Vietnamese girls, one of whom had just graduated University and was headed south to Hoi An for vacation.

 

Once in Hue (and after dealing with a lying taxi driver cheat), we headed over to the Citadel, the main attraction in Hue.  A square 2km by 2km, the Citadel was the center of the consolidated power of Emperor Gia Long in the early 1800s.  It consisted of an Imperial City, and a “Forbidden Purple City” where only the emperor and his “people” (ie religious leaders, women, and eunuchs) could go.  The entire structure is, of course, surrounded by a moat and the main entrance is signified by a large flagpole.

 

There is a major restoration effort going within the Citadel.  We were able to capture the truly painstaking work some of these people are doing on one structure, made possible by a grant from the German government.

 

And here is a dog providing moral support to the effort, in its own way.

 

 

Carrie was in a posing mood that morning…

 

After lunch, we headed out to the tombs of past Nguyen Dyansty rulers.  First on our list was Khai Dinh tomb, a truly impressive structure built into a hillside.

 

 

 

 

Next was the tomb of Ming Mang, a little harder to find and not as impressive as Khai Dinh’s, in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, our day was then cut short due to a nasty rainstorm that came in.  We did recover later to take in a pedi-cab ride around the city at night, which made for a lot of fun and some decent pictures (all taken while in motion so forgive the chaotic nature of these):

 

 

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