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Published: August 8th 2007
Our lunch stop
On the road to Hue. Sadly, the food did not live up to its setting.Leaving Hoi An (Blog:
Hoi An. Suits you, sir...) by mini-bus, we had the option of a scenic coastal drive past China Beach, Marble Mountains, through Danang and over the Hai Van Pass. New Zealand had taught us that any road with "Pass" in its name tended to be spectacular, so I barely listened to the alternative route our guide (Quan) offered, but hearing the word "tunnel" was enough for me! I hadn't come all this way to see the inside of a tunnel and couldn't believe our guide was even offering it as an alternative. Fortunately the other 5 agreed. This may be a Communist country, but a little bit of democracy ruled here...the Pass it was. With the relationship between the group and our guide souring due to his apparent laziness to tell us anything about his country, we'd get some guiding out of him yet by going over the Pass and demanding a history lesson on its past significance as the border between Vietnam and the 15th century Kingdom of Champa and its role in the French and American Wars.
As you climb the Pass, the views back to beaches and bays running
View back from Hai Van Pass
On the route up the Pass, on the road from Danang to to Hue from Danang, to China beach and beyond were a sight to behold. We paused for a stop at the viewing point at the peak of the Pass, where we were warned of persistent souvenir vendors. Indeed they were determined to sell us anything they could and their befriending tactics and banter were fun to a point, but we'd come for the views, not to buy their tat. Descending down the Pass bound for Hue the views continued to engage us. We then had a lunch stop at a resort which appeared deserted. No wonder, the food was dreadful (with the cherry on top being Sally getting meat in her vegetarian meal). The views offered from our lunch vantage point, from what I can only describe from our time in Thailand as a 'Sala' petruding out towards the beach, were serene and made up for the poor food. We welcomed the coastal breeze on what was another sweltering day.
Hue We arrived in Hue mid-afternoon and immediately set about trying to organise our own trip to a selection of the many Tombs and Temples around Hue. We soon found the Mandarin Cafe, which as well as the obvious has
a tour desk and is practically transformed into a gallery by the owner's love of photography. We soon met the infamous photographer and owner himself, Mr Cu; a lovely man. After spending ages admiring his work, chatting to him about it, then buying a print to take back with us, we arranged our tour. In part this was our group protest at what seemed to be the exorbitant prices our guide wanted to charge us for the same thing, although in his defence our smallish group did mean less heads to divide the cost.
That evening our guide recommended the "best Italian in Vietnam" called Little Italy, so we all went there. We should have been wise to these recommendations by now - often it is a case of a free meal for the guide in return for guaranteed business each time they're in town and nothing to do with the quality of the place. This one took the biscuit though; as we walked into a packed restaurant it became evident that every person in the restaurant had been herded in by the same tour company as us! I could have lived with this lack of authenticity if the
Thien Mu Pagoda
Its octagonal tower overlooking the Perfume river food had been any good, but it wasn't. This was the final straw; from now on we'd be setting the rules!
Tombs, temples, pagodas and motorbike rides The next morning we discovered the hotel pets (the catfish) belly up in their tank - we'd told the staff they looked like they needed feeding! We joked that they'd probably eat them. We didn't have time to mourn; we needed to set off early to the pier on the Perfume river to board the boat that would take us on our tour of the various Temples, Tombs and Pagodas around Hue. First stop was Thien Mu Pagoda. The stand-out attractions here are both the 21m high Octagonal tower and the setting of the complex, on a hill over-looking the river, where we could just about make out some kids having a great time in the water far below. We then set off for a selection of the Royal Tombs, the single term given to a collection of numerous ornate mausoleums that dot the outskirts of Hue just inland from the Perfume river. Each member of royalty tries to out do their ancestor with increasing amounts of grandeur. It is easy to
The conical hat maker
On the motorbike ride back from Tomb of Tu Duc. get a bit tombed-out, with some people choosing to stay on the boat or in one of the villages we stopped at, but be it a motorbike ride in or a walk up a steep, forboding entrance I chose to check out each one that we stopped at.
Most people favoured the last tomb we stopped at, the Tomb of Minh Mang which blends into it's natural surroundings, complete with grand gates, statues, pavillions, terraces and water surrounds. For me it was hard to pick a favourite as they all had stand out features. The opulent interior, intricate dragon carvings and chess figure like statue set-up at the hillside Tomb of Khai Dinh was particularly impressive, as was the history behind it all - despite the fact it's built in concrete! I was the only member of our little tour group that went, leaving the others in the shade on a sweltering day to mingle with the locals and their puppies on the river bank in Chau Chu Village. The tomb of Tu Duc was also a beautiful setting with its lake, boat landing, stone bridge and various monumental buildings, with the trees and undergrowth taking hold in places,
Garden Chess for Royalty?
At the Tomb of Khai Dinh. only adding to its charm.
The 'getting there' was just as much fun as the Tombs were interesting: the peaceful cruise along the perfume river, watching life go by and the slightly hair rasing motorbike passenger rides where the tombs are slightly out of walking range. A stop at a workshop to see how the iconic conical hat is made was also a worthwhile diversion at the Tomb of Tu Duc.
That night we dictated that we were all going to go an Indian restaurant of our choice, so off to Omar Khayyam's Indian restaurant it was. Good choice too - the food was superb. During the meal we also dictated how the following day's tour of the Citadel and the Forbidden Purple City would unfold...it was time for our Guide to do some guiding for once! But first, to round off the night, we headed to a slightly seedy bar for cocktails and pool.
The Citadel Our last morning in Hue and the catfish were gone. The hotel staff were either playing on yesterday's joking about, or they really had eaten them for breakfast - we were pretty convinced it was the latter.
During our
The Usual Suspects
Taking cover from the heat, Hue Citadel stay in Hue to this point we'd noticed a lot of cyclo taxi drivers waiting for business under the shade of the trees. There didn't seem to be that much trade for them at the moment; apparently the city was not that busy with tourists. It is said that many of them did once have good jobs or were even in a profession (Doctors, teachers etc.) but were stripped of their citizenship as punishment for fighting in the Amercian War for what was South Vietnam, so cannot take up their old professions. Our guide had offered to arrange a taxi as transport to/from the Citadel, but we felt we wanted to give the cyclos some employment. We had no problem in finding 7 cyclos and in agreeing a price, so off we sped to the Citadel on 3 wheels. We all had plenty of fun with the cyclo drivers. As soon as mine found out I was married and that my wife was in a cyclo ahead of us, he insisted on catching up to say hello to Sally.
As we arrived at the Citadel, Quan was quickly in his element. He did us proud, finally putting aside his
'end of term' approach (given his imminent first holiday in about 9 months) and putting some effort into being our guide. We only had 2 hours in which to cover the Citadel, but it quickly became obvious it wasn't going to be enough - it is an extensive site, with a 10km perimeter. There's plenty here to hold your interest, particularly with a guide to tell you the history and significance of the buildings and some of the items contained within. However, one disappointment was the Forbidden Purple City - the very name conjured up all kind of grand expectation in my mind that was very much let down. So where was it?! There's nothing much to see other than signs of where a huge building once stood which are now pretty much covered by a garden vegetable patch that's struggling to take hold! Sadly whatever once stood here was very much destroyed during the Tet Offensive.
Our 2 hours were soon up, so we returned to our cyclo drivers who had waited patiently in front of Flag Tower, in the shade of the Citadel. Matt was determined to race me back, but felt a little guilt at making
his driver cycle so fast in this heat...so he took over cycling instead. The journey ended on a sour note for all but me: I gave my driver what I felt was a reasonable tip, which he gratefully accepted. He'd been great company and had earned it. The other drivers were all demanding up to double the agreed price of the others in the group, with rows erupting all around. We all felt our trust had been betrayed as we'd chosen to give the cyclos our business (our guide wanted us to take a taxi), agreed a price and given a tip, then got demands for much more! They certainly didn't do themselves any favours.
A few hours relaxation, lunch and some take away for the overnight train journey later, then we were off to the railway station, bound for Hanoi.
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