Hue

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Hue is an interesting city, with the Perfume River neatly disecting the city and as the former capitol of the counrty, the heart of the city surrounded by a defensive fortifation consisting of an enormous brick wall that runs a total of 6 miles around. On top of all this, is a fortified citadel is a walled off area within the walled of area that encloses several acres. All in all, the city provides ample fair for just nosing about.

On my first day spent my time wandering the streets and poking around some fairly interesting museums. The following day, on the recommendation of some friends, I bought a ticket to the citadel. The city of Hue was fiercly contested in the Vietnam War, and as a result of the heavy bombing a large part of the citadel is grass fields with only the foundations of buildings peeking through the grass. This combined with the sheer size of the interior means that I was able to wander the fields along allowing me to pretend I was the first person to explore the area, even though I was in the middle of a major tourist site.

A number of palaces and temples did survive and are open for tourist and these were nothing short of stunning to behold. However, the most interesting part had nothing to do with the citadel. At one point I emerged from a building and quickly rounded a corner and came very close to walking into the hind quarters of an elephant who was sedately walking down the middle of the sidewalk. I never did find out an explanation for this pachyderm wandering the citadel, but it was quite fun.

However, the best part of Hue was revealed when I went out for a couple of runs, which provided an oppurtunity get away from the tourist parts of town allowing me to witness normal day-to-day life and get away from people selling constantly trying to sell me stuff. The runs were great because on top of spectacular scenery and large parks to run through, the people I encountered where a blast. In both instances I headed out with no destination other than to get away from the more tourist parts of town.

Each time I succeeded in my goal and quickly found that as long as I smiled and waved, everybody was extraordinarly friendly. At one time, I went down a small alley and briefly ended up with an inquisitive young running partner. Also fun where the old women sitting on the side of the road taking a break from carrying a load (with the traditional stick balanced on the shoulder with a basket dangling from each end) who universally broke into a huge smiles and waved as I went past. Also joining in the fun were old men on bicycles, who as they passed would call out a friendly cadence of "one, two, three." The younger generation consisting of school children, responded to my "xin chou" (hello) with a "hello" back, along with quite a few giggles.

My favorite was the time I wound through a back alley that had a number of foodstalls, whereupon I found myself surrounded by a whole slew of vendors calling out "ole, ole, ole" as went by. This is followed by a close second place of the the truck driver, piloting an absolutely enormous truck down a tiny gravel road, who as he passed me going the opposite direction reached down and gave me a high-five.

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Comments

[Kari]

Peter- Were they giggling because you had your full on running gear on, spandex and all???