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April 23, 2005
Vietnam | Hue | 14-16 March 2005
From the arrival back in Hanoi from Halong Bay, I had a couple of hours to get sorted before the 12 hour bus to Hue.
Hue is a really pretty, rich and interesting city that can easily be overlooked in the wonder of other cities of Vietnam. Its not a huge tourist destination, but the citadel, the Emperor tombs and the new-found ‘cultural development’ does draw some tour buses.
Hue (pronounced ‘hway’) sits on the Perfume River, the riverside of which has an arrangement of natural beauty in the form of gardens, artistic sculptures, walkways and pagodas.
I found the citadel walls, the moat, the gates, the flag tower and the remains of the Forbidden Purple City (where the Emperor kept his concubines) to be all extremely interesting to visit, great places to relax, walk around and soak up the atmosphere.
Flag Tower | Street to Gate | Gate and it’s bridge
Moat, now filled with some kind of lily/plant | Ngoc Mon Gate to palace | More moat
Thai Hoa Palace, behind it is where the Forbidden Purple City is/was | Roof structure of Thai Hoa Palace | Seriously Cool Hedging
The beautiful girls in beautiful, traditional Ao Dai
More of inside the citadel and around the Forbidden City
Check out some of the cool stuff the Emperor had!
After lunch with the guys I met in Halong Bay (we were on the same tourist path now…) I decided to walk the 4km to the Thien Mu Pagoda, which is an impressive tiered pagoda around which many anti-government protests occurred in the 60s.
Aesthetically pleasing canal I saw on the walk to Thien Mu Pagoda| Thien Mu Pagoda
There were some cool buddha-figurine-thingys – very detailed and expressive!
Beautiful things around the Pagoda
I was too wacked to go anywhere after my walk to and from the pagoda, so I missed out on the tombs, but from what I hear, they’re quite impressive!
What Hue has in culture, beauty and history, it lacks in modern ‘young’ entertainment – nowhere to be found interesting or open after midnight – typical of still being pretty far north (although technically in southern Vietnam). Worth a visit if you have the time!
Posted by Dan at April 23, 2005 04:03 AM