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Published: August 6th 2007
Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam up until 1945. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Hue has a lot of interesting monuments, temples and pergodas, including the Royal Citadel and the Emperor’s tombs. Thien Mu Pagoda was also an incredibly interesting place.
Also Hue gave us a snapshot of another side to Vietnam rather than the tourist trail. We embarked on a day long motorcycle tour which took us through the backstreets, countryside and village districts on the outskirts of the city. This was a great way to get around, who would not be overwhelmed by 150cc of unleashed fury in the guise of a Honda Dream, with “Born to be wild” playing in your imagination. We wound our way down laneways, country tracks, in and out of rice fields and villages.
Stops along the way included having a try at making incense sticks, visiting Vietnam’s most famous conical hat maker, having our palms read by a fortune teller under a covered bridge, plus talking and playing with a lot of the local school kids in one of the villages. Oh, and lunch at a monastery for Buddhist nuns.
The school kids
were all interested in trying out their English skills as they were learning it at school. We were really impressed with how hard they tried to hold a conversation with us and they seemed to be genuinely happy that we could easily understand them. Obviously when we asked them what they knew about Australia they all responded “kangaroo”.
Two of these kids really impressed me, I had a packet of dried fruit which I gave to one of them. They both ran off to the other side of the bridge. When we were walking around the village I noticed them behind a shed tipping the dried fruit out on a table and very carefully sharing it out in equal parts. There was no argument about either one getting a bigger share, they were obviously good mates and very decent kids. The same for some kids we talked to on the bridge who we gave some treats to as well. We did not have to say “make sure you share them” they just automatically shared them with every other child that was nearby. I know when I was their age I would squabble with my siblings over something like this.
pheonix
symbol of wise womenThey were obviously very used to sharing.
Back on the bikes we scooted down narrow roads again, with school children making their way home on foot and on bicycles all saying “hello” and waving or giving us “high fives” as we rode past. Some of the roads were so narrow between the houses that I thought I would loose a knee while passing other traffic. It is amazing how much fun you can have at 30km/h!
Also during our time in Hue we took a Dragon boat cruise on the Perfume River. The river got it’s name form the fact that in times goon by a lot of flowers grew on the river banks and the perfume would waft down the river. Could not find too many flowers on our cruise, but we spotted lots of folks dredging for sand, which looked like a very laborious way to earn a living. Once on the dragon boat, the ingenious wife of the boat owner knew she had a captive audience for an hour or and tried to sell us all manner of goods, clothing, shoes, postcards, etc. It was worth a try on her part and she was in
no rush to drop her prices. The cruise was pretty good and there were some interesting sights on the river. Our local guide in Hue told us he lived on the river and a few years back during a typhoon his boathouse was almost destroyed and his family had to do without food for about 5 days before help could arrive. The river looked placid now but judging by how wide it’s banks were it certainly looked like it could swell to huge proportions in bad weather. This was further evidenced by the flood markers we saw here and there showing the level of the water in record flood years.
Lorenza really liked the city of Hue, mainly because of it’s relaxed atmosphere and it’s location on the Perfume River. It was a good place for a few days break.
Great bottle opener
One evening in Hue we dined at a great restaurant run by a very interesting family. The owner was deaf and mute, the whole family were involved in the restaurant from Grandmother down to grand daughter and they were a very happy bunch. They gave away very novel beer bottle openers as a souvenir. The
Hue = Citadel
our tour group owner was a great guy to chat with, he was able to lip read English very well and explained via sign language and some charades, how he came up with the idea for the bottle openers. He was apparently very thirsty one summers day and in need of a cool beer. He reached for his bottle opener, but it broke, so in a moment of divine inspiration he came up with his own design for a bottle opener using a scrap of wood and a nut and bolt. It works a treat!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Great photos!!
We were in Hue in 2007. I love your photo of the Citadel. Very creative. Thanks for sharing.