Saturday 5th December
So we arrived at a ridiculous time in the morning after our long coach ride down from Hanoi! It had been a long and interesting journey. Fortunately there were some people at the back of the coach who helped make things a little more interesting. The beds were literally tiny, every time you tired to roll over, you elbowed someone in the head or if you were in a bed next to the aisle, you nearly fell out. But all in all, a good nights sleep later, Hue was in sight.
We got dropped off in Hue somewhere and were literally greeted by a ton of people all saying the same thing. “I know your hotel, I take you there.” Funny that as we had not booked a hotel for Hue. So we choose to walk up the street a bit, take a breather in a cafe, and then once the throng of people had died down, then look for a hotel. In the midst of all of this, we ended up joining forces with Alan and Byron, a Scotsman and Canadian respectively.
We ended up jumping into a hotel that was US$20 a night, but that price included dinner and breakfast which we thought was incredible. The room was big and we saw a bathtub for the first time on our trip!!!
So after a little rest to recover from the bus journey, we headed out into Hue. Now just to put things into perspective, the weather was not great, it was the first rain we had seen all trip and we were shattered. Hue was the old imperialist capital of Vietnam and the Imperial City was said to be one of the finest in the world, until the Americans bombed it!!!
We crossed the river and headed to the citadel from the south side so that the first thing we would approach was the flag tower. The flag tower is the focal point of the Imperial City which was built in 1807, and is now a national symbol.
The flag tower is opposite Noon Gate, one of the 10 entrances to the city and probably the most dynamic. In its time it was used a the royal entrance.
Noon Gate from the entry side and from within the Imperial City.
As tourism is slowly picking up in Vietnam, the Vietnamese are also realising how valuable all their national monuments and treasures are, and slowly but surely, they are either restoring or recreating what used to be there before the bombing. But the skill of the men that are doing this work is incredible. Craftsmen like this would be worth a fortune back in the UK!
A craftsman at work with his ‘original’ tools and the final article!
The Forbidden Purple City was the most talked about and well known sections of the Imperial City. Now what everyone failed to mention to us was that it was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1947 and what remains is mainly rubble and the Thai Binh Reading Pavilion (which was pretty impressive). I think the one mistake we made, was to not get a guide for the Imperial City. It would have brought this place alive!
The weather was getting even worse as the afternoon went on, so we decided to try and a drier place. We left the Imperial City and wandered for a bit until we saw, what could only be described as a scout hut. We didnt know what it was, but thought we would take a look inside, and what we found was unbelievable. Artifacts found from within the Imperial City and from tombs in the surrounding hills. Some of the artifacts were dating back to the 9th century. We dont know what drew us into the this hut, but we were astounded that items of such historical value were in a non advertised building with no security. Very very strange!
The rain was putting a real dampener on our day, so we headed over the river that seperates old and newer Hue and where our hotel was. We made a pitstop for a drink and for the dry but decided to wander the streets and find the local market.
We had dinner in our hotel, and although it was only noodle soup and fried potatoes, when you’re on a budget, it was spot on!!! It was too early to retire, so we headed back out to one of the bars that we had seen on our walks. Now bearing in mind, that most travellers do a very similar route through Vietnam, it is always possible to see travellers from previous cities.
So we are sat in a very hip bar, music is great, drinks are cheap, when in walks our friends from earlier on in the day, Alan and Byron. We play some Jenga, drink some drinks, and we are all about to head off, when two of our friends from our boat tour to Halong Bay appear in the bar too! So of course we stay for some more! By this point there are 3 Premiership games on the 3 TVs in the bar, so in Chris’s mind it’s a complete winner lol! We play some more Jenga, we dance the night away, until someone has the bright idea of going to kareoke! Piers and Olly are on bicycles, so its easy for them. So we decide to hire a tuk tuk driver. Now these are one seater, but the driver put both of us in and started pedalling. The poor guy was struggling under our 20something stone in weight (combined of course), so Piers for the fun of it, takes over.
The tuk tuk driver is onto a winner, he doesn’t speak much English and thinks we are all drunk, so takes us a nice long winded route around the new town. Naomi (with her amazing sat nav skills) tried to protest, she may have had a few drinks, but that doesn’t mess up her navigational skills. In the end, we just let him pedal us round. We had just decided to head back to the bar, when Naomi realised we were on the road of our hotel, and it was as we were riding past the hotel (all the grates were closed and there were no lights on) that we decided to call it a night. We said goodbye to Piers and Olly and proceeded to attempt to get into our locked hotel. Yet another early sleeping city, well early ish, it was 1am, but still…….
Sunday 6th December
As the weather wasn’t great in Hue, we had decided to head south on the afternoon coach. In the morning we took a stroll into town but visibility was still poor so the pictures of the views just weren’t what we were hoping for.
The coach journey was 5 hours and we were heading through Danang (the major port city in Vietnam) to a city just south and a little smaller called Hoi An.
The coach ride is renowned for its beauty, so Naomi spent the whole journey with her camera out of the window. Here are just a few of the shots.
The picture bottom right is an example of the many padi fields!
These pictures are from the lake at the back of our little pit stop! Pretty spectacular!
Tam biet (goodbye) from Hue!
Naomi and Chris
xxx
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