Charlie Don't Surf

---

I flew from Hanoi to Hue to cut out a 15 hour bus journey through what is not the most exciting area of Vietnam. The main reason I visited Hue was to see the imperial citadel. Most of the citadel was destroyed during the 1968 Tet offensive, when the Viet Cong flag flew over the citadel for weeks. Though it has been heavily renovated, you can still see bullet holes in a few places.

The citadel was quite interesting and the government is carrying out extensive renovations. It looked like a smaller version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The constant harassment of the moto and cyclo drivers is annoying, but you just have to be firm and ignore them when they follow you.

On the second day, I took a boat trip to the imperial tombs near Hue. The tombs are not that old, but the scenery along the river is nice. Tu Duc's tomb is the most impressive. In typical Vietnamese fashion, the boat trip was only $2, but everything else was extra. That meant that lunch, entrance fees (55,000 dong for foreigners), and all other expenses were separate. They even make you pay the moto drivers 20,000 dong (about $1.25, which is high for Vietnam) one way to get to the tomb. The distance is probably only about 2 kilometers!

Although the boat trip wasn't too exciting, the people were great and I ended up traveling with a few of them off and on all the way down to Saigon. We all agreed that we did not want to see the second tomb because the first was the biggest and most interesting, so we told the people running the boat that we did not want to see the second or third tomb and to take us all back to Hue early. They were not happy to hear this because they make commission off each admission ticket.

After we got back to Hue, everyone from the boat went to a bar and we all drank a few beers together. One of the funniest people was this older Aussie guy named Sam. He knew of a great restaurant in Hue, so we all met up for a fantastic dinner later on. He was retired from the hospitality business and had recommendations about every place he had been in Vietnam, including Hoi An, the next stop farther south. All his recommendations were spot on. Thanks Sam!

---

Photos

Royal entrance to Hue imperial fortress
There are 4 entrances. The hierarchy is one for the royal family, one for ambassadors, one for women, and the last and lowest is for servants.

Archway
Some parts are pretty run down, though they seem to be doing some renovations.

Hue street
Crossing the street in Vietnam is like playing Frogger.

Car used to carry Vietnamese monk to his self-immolation
You may recall the famous photo of the monk who burned himself to death to protest the South Vietnamese regime.

Explanation of the car

Comments

[Charlie]

not surfing
You got that right (although you'd think that after living in Santa Cruz I would have learned). Looks like the comments are thin in the last couple of entries, but I know a few folks are following the blog happily.