Hue - Vietnam's historic capital

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Day 399: Monday 3rd August - Back on the Reunification Express: Destination Hue

I leave a grey Hoi An at 9:30am after a visit to the post office to post a box of delights home. A further hour and I’m in Danang, and after an hour’s wait in the station, I’m back aboard the Reunification Express. The journey to Hue is only about 100km, but as I failed to point out in my last blog about the Reunification Express - it doesn’t move very fast, due to some steep gradients in the hilly terrain. Whereas the Saigon to Danang leg was all about the Vietnamese people, this leg is all about Vietnam’s scenery. As well as lush hillsides, the train runs along the coast past bays and islands and past rice paddies. Being the only foreigner in the carriage, I attract a fair few welcoming ‘hello’s’ when I board. On arrival in Hue, I get a motorbike to the backpacker area, where I acquaint myself with the few streets around my guesthouse and book a tour for tomorrow.

Day 400: Tuesday 4th August - Hue’s dynastic past - Part 1: The tombs

Hue is the historic capital of Vietnam, connected to the imperial Nguyen Dynasty, based in Hue, who ruled from 1804 to 1945, when the Emperor Bao Dai abdicated in favor of Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary government. The tour I’ve booked takes us to three of the tombs of the Emperor’s of the Nguyen Dynasty. I’m not really in the mood for a day long tour as I’m really tired and have a sense of foreboding that this is going to be a third crap tour on the bounce after the Mekong Delta and My Son temples.

Although the tour starts at 8:30am we don’t actually get to the tombs until the afternoon. In the morning I have to endure an age waiting for the Dragon Boat to finally get on its way down the Perfume River and then the tour starts with a few ‘fillers’ - a boat fishing village and a Kong fu demonstration which you have to pay for. Why do these tour companies do this? Most people want to see a few attractions, in this case the tombs and are not interested in seeing five other things as well. Less is more….tour agencies take note! We continue up the river in the Dragon boat for an hour until we reach Thien Mu Pagoda. The boat is hot and uncomfortable and my premonition that this was going to be a crap tour has proved right so far.

Thien Mu Paagoda proves to be a worthwhile stop. I’m at the ‘it’s just another Buddhist Temple’ stage but this locates a beautiful spot overlooking the Perfume River. We continue further up the river to Hon Chen Temple, which has a entrance charge and I’m definitely at the stage of not paying for temples I’m not interested in seeing! We are provide with lunch back on the boat and then it’s on to the interesting part of the tour - the tombs.

The tombs were built by puppet emperors who had little real power, other than to sit around contemplating their own deaths and building monuments in anticipation of the occasion. The first we visit, Ming Mang, is set in beautiful grounds, feels more than a bit Chinese (in fact all three tombs we visit do) and I‘m impressed at the serenity and beauty of the place although on the face of it there isn’t that much to see. We change transport, to a bus and visit Khai Dinh tomb next. This tomb is smaller than the other two, in better condition and after a steep climb of 100+ steps, the views are pretty good too. Khai Dinh tomb doesn’t really have any grounds to speak of but the architecture and the views more than compensate and this is my personal favourite.

If the tomb visits had ended there I would have been more than happy as the sun has come out and it is extremely hot now. I’m also probably suffering from tomb burnout. Consequently, the last tomb, Tu Duc Tomb, although similar in style to Ming Mang, I don’t enjoy as much, although it does have some beautiful, tranquil grounds. On the whole though, after seeing the tombs I think it was the right decision to come to Hue, they were definitely worthwhile seeing and there’s still the citadel to see tomorrow.

Day 401: Wednesday 5th August - Hue’s dynastic past - Part 2: The Citadel

With several hours to kill before my train leaves for Hanoi in mid-afternoon, I decide to check out the citadel which lies on the opposite bank of the Perfume River. On my walk across, lose count how many times I’m asked if I want a cyclo or motorbike. If I did, I would be approaching them...how stupid can they be?...but that’s the culture in Southeast Asia.

Like many of Hue's historic sites, the Citadel is hardly ancient - construction first began in 1805, under the rule of Gia Long, the first of the Nguyen Dynasty rulers. Thereafter it functioned as the imperial seat of government. At its height, it was comparable to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The citadel was badly knocked about during fighting between the French and the Viet Minh in 1947, and again in 1968 during the Tet Offensive, when it was shelled by the Viet Cong and then bombed by the Americans. Only footprints remain of many buildings and these are untended and overgrown with weeds. Where restoration work is underway it resembles a building site. The models of the Citadel - a great sprawling complex of temples, pavilions, moats, walls, palaces and museums look great but the reality is that the actual place is largely disappointing.

After a couple of days in Hue I leave the city behind and central Vietnam bound for Hanoi. Hue has been okay, the tombs were very good but the rest was very miss-able. To get to Hanoi, I’m back on the Reunification Express, this time in a hard sleeper. This journey I don’t enjoy as much as the one from Saigon. I’m sharing the cabin with 5 people (or that should read there are six beds, for there are three kids sharing beds with family members. No-one speaks English in this cabin and with so many bodies it is stifling until the sun goes down. Cramped and with the kids being noisy, I don’t get to much sleep and I am glad to get off the train shortly after 8am in Hanoi. 1726 kilometres and 35 hours of train travel after I left Saigon, I achieved what I set out to do, travel the length of Vietnam on the Reunification Express.

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