Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
Hue came to prominence at the beginning of the 19th century when the first emperor of the Nguyen dynasty moved the imperial capital there from Hanoi. He constructed an enormous citadel guarding 3 concentric enclosures which must have been quite a sight, given how the remains look. Unfortunately many of the complex's buildings were destroyed in the aftermath of the Tet offensive during the Vietnam War, leaving just hints of the former grandeur of the place.
The river running through Hue is called the Perfume River, and if you follow it south you'll find a number of Nguyen dynasty mausoleums in the valley. I hired a bike to visit a couple of these. First was that of Minh Mang, the location of which had taken 14 years to determine - 3 years of work by 10,000 men were then needed to construct it. It was designed in accordance with Chinese tradition, and the landscaped gardens were peaceful surroundings for the pavilions of the mausoleum itself.
The second mausoleum I saw was that of Khai Dinh and was totally different, taking advantage of its hillside location by being approached via several terraces of austere black and grey stone bearing carvings
of dragons. It took 11 years to construct, though Khai Dinh himself only reigned for 9. The external baroque stylings are a complete contrast to the insides of the principal temple, which are covered in coloured mosaics in most vivid fashion.
A day in the saddle was perhaps not the best preparation for my next activity - a tour of the DMZ on the back of a motorbike. This almost crippled me, as I was riding pillion for several hours. The tour wasn't worth doing. We visited the Ben Hai river that had formed part of the 17th parallel - the old border between North and South Vietnam established in the 1954 Geneva Accords and persisting until reunification in 1975 - and I crossed the Hien Luong bridge on foot. We also visited the Vinh Moc tunnels, dug to provide living quarters for up to 400 people during surface bombardment. With an average height of less than 1.93m, the tunnels were a stooping-only zone for me, but imagination was required to picture how they must have been 40 years ago. A final stop at the site of the rusting hulk of an American tank, and then we headed back
Tower detail
The Mieu temple in the citadelto Hue. A sore bum, sunburned knees, and red eyes were my main recollections of the day.
I enjoyed Hue as a place, however it also gave me a couple more experiences that, in conjunction with what's already happened to me in Vietnam, made me extremely unwilling to engage anyone in conversation. When walking around the neighbourhood on my first evening, a smartly dressed young Vietnamese guy started chatting to me. He was from Hanoi but had just arrived in Hue to look for a better job than the one he had at home, and we talked for maybe half an hour or so. He suggested that we meet up for dinner, which I pooh-poohed as I had a number of errands to run, at which point he asked me for some money - which had presumably been the reason he spoke to me in the first place.
The second incident occurred when I was visiting the mausoleums. As I was cycling along, a woman on a moped slowed to match my pace then began chatting to me. This was a little irritating from both a sightseeing and bike safety point of view but, friendly soul that I
am, I continued the conversation. It turned out she ran a pineapple farm and she insisted that I stop by for a few minutes, as it was on my route. I was filled with a sense of foreboding which I stupidly ignored. Her house was good by village standards and we sat chatting on the terrace, drinking tea and eating pineapple. The subject of her children's education came up, and when she mentioned how expensive it was to send them to school, I knew what was coming next. Sure enough, she then asked for a "donation" to help her cover this cost. I refused on principle, as I really dislike having my time wasted under false pretences. She then asked me to pay for the tea and pineapple, which I also declined to do for the same reason. After pointing out to her my disappointment at this behaviour, I left.
After Hue, it was time for yet another place beginning with H - Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 12; qc: 25; dbt: 0.076s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jules
non-member comment
Pineapple farm
That happened to me - I'd stopped on my tuk-tuk to take a photo of the river when I woman on a tuk-tuk stopped and talked me into returning to her place for some tea. She didn't hit me up for cash though - it was her 15-year-old daughter for her computer school fees. I knew it was coming the whole time I was there. That was in 2004 - in 2005 I was in Central America hanging around with a Brit who told me the exact same story.