Hue

　
We caught the bus from Hoi an to Hue at 8am in the morning, and it was a really nice drive through the mountains, with a stop off at a little road-house and gift shop.

We arrived in Hue at 12noon and fr the first time ever we were dropped in the hotel area of the town. This meant that as soon as we got off the bus we were bombarded by hotel touts, to be honest when i heard someone say balcony, swimming pool for $15 i was very easily persuaded. So we followed this man down an alleyway and into our new home for a couple of days. After a quick lunch of pork wrapped in rice paper (my second favourite meal), i decided by looking at the map that the citadel was not far and that we should walk there to see what the crack was. Bur before we could leave we were approached by a lady selling silk paintings, my automatic reaction now to everyone is no, so i said no. But as we were paying the lady at the next table was looking at them and they were really rather nice. So despite the fact we had just a couple of days before sent THE package home, i decided i needed them. So we bought 3 for £2, and because i was so impressed i took pictures, so here are the paintings we bought (and now have to lug around in big round container for who knows how long!)

 

Well it was far and after wandering along the river we found a supermarket, so we stocked up on cold drinks (believe me when i say it is hot, you literally walk out of the hotel and you are dripping) and nice leather case for our paintings. By that point we realised that to explore the city further we needed a motorbike, and the swimming pool was calling us so we headed back.

The following morning now with motorbike we set off to explore Hue, Hue is the capital city of Thua Thien, Vietnam. Between 1802 and 1945, it was the imperial capital of the Nguyen dynasty. Its population is about 340,000, many of these people live within the walls of the citadel.

Huế is well known for its historic monuments, which have earned it a place as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The seat of the Nguyen emperors was the Citadel, which occupies a large, walled area on the north side of the Perfume River. Inside the citadel was a forbidden city where only the emperors, concubines, and those close enough to them were granted access; the punishment for trespassing was death. Today, little of the forbidden city remains, although to be honest i was not really aware of this.

During the Vietnam War, Hue’s central position placed it very near the border between the North and the South; however, the city was located in South Vietnam. During the 1968 Battle of Hue the city suffered considerable damage not only to its physical features, but its reputation as well, most of it from American firepower and bombings on the historical buildings as well as the massacre at Hue committed by the communist forces. After the war’s conclusion, many of the historic features of Hue were neglected because they were seen by the victorious regime and some other Vietnamese as "relics from the feudal regime".

The Citadel has another citadel within it and there you have to leave your bike and pay to go in. Somehow we managed to drive round all three of the not open gates until we reach the open gate. Although we still ended up going cross country to get to the parking area, because the whole area was one way. Anyway i don't know what i was expecting, but to be honest there was not a lot there. The gates were about the prettiest thing about the whole complex.

 
I think that we maybe we have been spoilt by seeing sights such as Hampi, Angkor Wat and some of the amazing temples and pagodas, but i was not impressed. But as we had paid our £4 to get in we duly wandered around and took some pictures, I am glad we saw it but i would not be rushing back.

The night before we had asked at our hotel whether there were any goat bbq restaurants nearby and one of the ladies had one near her house. She had given us directions and we headed over there for lunch. Again this was a little local place and no one spoke english, so ever resourceful we rang our hotel and asked them to order for us, which they did over the phone. All very efficient and 10 minutes later we had a lovely goat bbq. The next logical step seemed to be to go and have a look at the beach.

The beach was lovely, the water was really clear and it was shallow for a long way. It seemed that this was where all the Vietnamese families go and there were loads of people there, but we were the only white people. We attracted quite a lot of attention, and everyone said hello and stared quite a lot. But by the time we had been in the water about 10 minutes they seemed to loose interest. It was lovely just to bob around in the sea for an hour to cool off, and its always nice to be somewhere different and just seeing the Vietnamese kids play in the water.

It was a really nice drive out to the beach through some little villages. On the way back we took a little detour to the other side of the river and to be honest i think we saw more then than in the morning at the citadel. It was really lovely and everyone again was really friendly, coming out of their houses to say hello.



The only other thing i wanted to see was the Tiger enclosure, which apparently is where the elephants and tigers used to dual in Imperial times. But we drove around looking for it for about an hour with no joy. So we headed back to the hotel for a shower and because it was so good headed back to the goat restaurant for another bbq. This time the restaurant was quite busy and they all definitely seemed very amused to see us back. As soon as we walked in a girl came over with bottle of Men vodka which is the one that we had when on our Easy Rider Tour. Craig was driving, but i felt up to the challenge.

So maybe 2 hours, 2 goat bbq's, 3 cokes and one bottle of vodka later the bill was 200,000VD, about £6. And i was pretty merry, which made the ride back to the hotel much more entertaining, well for me, i don't think quite so much for Craig. I think i directed him into a couple of wrong turns and said about 3 times look at the pretty lights, so yea, good night!

The following day we had to leave to go to Dong Hoi. So the day was spent mostly in bed, with a bit of a sore head getting packed up. I saw these on the street and had to take a picture, very pretty!

The bus is due to pick us up at 5pm and it only takes 5 hours to get there, so it could be worse. The plan is to go to Dong Hoi as this is place that you can then get Phong Nha National Park, which is our next stop. So until then............