Hue - cycling

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Grrrhhh - where did all this rain come from!! We were told in the North of Vietnam to expect lots of sun the further south we travelled - but nothing could be further from the truth. I think, to be fair, the weather is a bit 'freakish' at the moment - even the Vietnamese are not used to so much bad weather at this time of year. We had expected Vietnam to be as hot as Thailand because it is so close - but no such luck . Anyway we are British - and used to rain so we will just manage!!

From Hanoi, we took a sleeper bus down to Hue(not train this time - a bit cheaper and more direct) . This was actually a really good method of transport. The roads are shockingly uneven - and you hit lots of bumps in the road throughout the journey which throw you into the air....but it was actually quite fun! We found out the trick is to head to the back of the bus where the beds are longer and flatter - we shared the entire back beds with a German couple and were able to sprawl out pretty well. We decided this is the way we were going to travel through the rest of vietnam.

Rain greeted us at Hue, shame because we had left behind sunshine in Hanoi. Our Hotel was very nice, they gave us welcome drinks and a friendly reception...but best of all - a bath tub!!!! We had not had a bath in 5 weeks (I'm not saying we hadn't washed lol) - so it was good to have a soak at last.

We only had 2 nights in Hue - so we had to cram as much sight seeing in to 2 days as possible. We had the afternoon left from the day we arrived, so - despite the weather chucking it down - we took off on foot to the old city to see the citadel and the market, and the perfume river.

Walking round Hue, we got a real sense of a city which is doing well for itself. Full of art shops, modern art sculptures dotted round the banks of the river, theatres and plenty of restaurants. It had a nice vibe. But one of the biggest draws of this city is the imperial history - the emporers dominated Hue - and there where many of them, with tombs and palaces scattered all around the the surrounding countryside. Visits to at least one or two of the major tombs and pagodas is essential while staying in Hue - and the best way to see them is by hiring bicycles. So Day 2 - we did just that.

We spent the day cycling round the countryside stopping at site after site - it was a day really well spent. The tomb of Tu Duc was really worth seeing - it is vast and the most elaborate of all the tombs. The emporer Tu Duc reigned from the early to mid 19th Century, he had 103 wives and as many concubines. He loved living lavishly and was obsessed about being given a good 'send off' when he died that he had his tomb built next to his palace whilst he was still living. The tombs (his own, his mother's, and his first wife's all have their own plot in this beautiful pine forest - they are each enclosed by two sets of walls with mosaic art on them. And each are accessed by climbing up many steps.

There is a lake in the middle with the pagoda still remaining where Tu Duc would sit and wrote poetry. Many of the artefacts still remain well intact and are displayed in one of the buildings - and there is also a theatre - beautifully restored, where the emporer would watch performances frequently. It is said that the emporer was such a materialistic man that he plotted a secret plan for his buriel. His instructions were that he should be buried with all of his gold and priceless antiques - but not in the tomb that had been constructed - because he feared grave robbers may one day raid it. He ordered another tomb to be made at a secret location some distance away and for all 200 men who had been involved in this secret plan to be beheaded as soon as it was complete. What a nice emporer!

We visited the 'Temple of Heaven' where the Emporers each year would offer up sacrifices (animals) to the Heavens - this was still going on up until less than 100 hundred years ago, and the site (despite it's macabra purpose) is set in a beautiful woodland again with views over the mountains.

The Thien Mu Pagoda was our last stop on our tour round - it is set on a hill top overlooking the perfume pagoda, and is very beautiful. The pagoda (a buddhist octagonal temple) is still in use, and there were some young monks chanting and kneeling at the main shrine when we went in. The grounds stretch back quite far and it is a very peaceful place to sit for a while. The views over the river are enchanting. We took a boat back from the Pagoda to the main street in Hue near our hotel so that we could see some more of the Perfume river.

In the evenings in Hue you are spoilt for choice for restaurants and bars. We had two very good vietnamese meals in Hue - for very little money. The first restaurant we went to had live traditional vietnamese music - 4 women and 1 man sat on a stage, dressed in colourful vietnamese dress (the women look like painted dolls - very beautiful). They all play a different instrument - one lady played china cups - two in each hand, clinking them together - it actually worked really well. There was some sort of zylophone, a stringed instrument that looked medieval and other interesting things. It was nice to see something traditional, and the food was great as well.

Despite the brief visit and the poor weather we still enjoyed our time in Hue. Next stop on our travels is HoiAn - a little further down the coast.

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