Sightseeing in Hue

We met our guide at 9.30am in the lobby of our hotel; its a bit of a ghost hotel as we have hardly seen anyone since we arrived. We did have a very tasty breakfast and there was another 3 or 4 tables occupied but the amount of food on offer would have fed an army!

It was 27 degrees outside so we were pleased to see Sala only had a jumper on today; we had shorts and t-shirts! Our first stop was Khai Dinh Tomb which was built for the twelfth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty. It is a mixture of western and eastern architecture and looks out onto the mountains on the outskirts of the city. It was very beautiful and peaceful, compared to the inner city.

Our next stop was Tu Duc Tomb, this was built for the Nguyen Emporer Tu Duc as a temple during his life and a tomb on death. Although, he had over 100 wives, he was unable to father a son as he had mumps and was impotent. He wrote his own epitaph and planned his tomb long before his death. The temple and surrounding area was very beautiful and peaceful so you can understand why he locked himself away here.

After an hour in the hot sun, we were starting to burn, so we got back in the car to go to the Thien Mu Pagoda; it is the unofficial symbol of the city and sits on the northern bank of the Perfume river. The temple itself is not particularly famous, but it houses a car, the Austin Westminster motor, in which Thich Quang Duc was driven to self-immolation in Saigon in 1963. Thich Quang Duc was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by President Diem (remember the North was led by the communist regime of Ho Chi Minh and the two were not united at this time). Like many pagoda in South Vietnam during this time, there were many anti-government protests due to the Presidents favouritism towards Catholics and discrimination against Buddhists. Further anger at the Presidents policy continued until mass protests were held; at one of these protests, nine Buddhists were killed by the Presidents army on Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. Protests escalated when the President ordered that no religious flags could be flown, the Vatican flag was still allowed, but the Buddhist ones were banned. The following day, the press were told to wait outside the Cambodian Embassy in Saigon as something was going to happen; many ignored the tip-off but two did not. The picture, by Malcom Browne, that was captured of Thich Quang Duc setting himself on fire on 11 June 1963, is now iconic; it was also used by Rage Against the Machine on the cover of their debut album and also the single “Killing in the Name”.

Our last stop was the citadel, but it was now lunchtime so we decided to have a break for an hour or two. We were taken to the second recommended restaurant, Les Jardins De La Carambole. This is a beautiful restaurant on the other side of the river and is incredibly romantic; we now know why they call this the honeymooners restaurant! The food is a mixture of French and Vietnamese which is beautiful. We had crab soup, crispy pancake (with pork, shrimp, mushrooms and egg) and beef in banana leaves; they were all really tasty and the setting was lovely. We had a couple of beers and a mojito for dessert!

After lunch, we walked with Sala to the Imperial City; unfortunately very few original buildings remain as most were destroyed by bombs during the war. We took a few pictures of the flag tower situated outside the entrance to the Imperial city before entering the grounds; they are ringed by a moat, with water diverted from the Perfume River. Inside the Imperial City is the Forbidden City, a little like the one in Beijing, but much smaller. We spent an hour walking around the citadel before taking a rickshaw to one of the many lakes in our final sightseeing trip of the day. Iain and I had a rickshaw each; it is quite good fun weaving in and out of the crazy traffic. It was only a 5 minute ride, but I am sure my rickshaw driver has had an easier pedal than Iain’s!

Once back at the hotel, we thought we would go down to the pool and have a few drinks. We sat for 15 minutes but no-one was about apart from the pool attendant and a Korean family, We decided to go to the bar; again, there was no customers apart from us and we had about 5 members of staff trying to serve us! We ordered two champage cocktails and got a bill of 302,000 Dong, about £10! We sat for an hour or so and stil no-one came....what an odd place!

We decided to wander back to the area we were in the previous night, get some food and a few drinks. Sala said she could not recommend any other place as good as La Carambole so we went back; I had the green mango salad with shrimp and some stir-fried vegetables in garlic while Iain had a.... pizza! Yup, you guessed it, Vietnam don’t do good pizza! (Iain: Getting the real information for you)

After dinner, we decided to head to another pub; the place seemed even more manic than the night before with all the seats taken by Vietnamese people. There was loud music blaring, people signing karaoke on the side of the street; it was mental. We found a bar that had the sign “Make Beer not War,” this would do. We lasted one drink, there was a table of guys beside us who seemed to be doing their best impression of a hen-do in Glasgow, this is what Vietnam new year is like, apparently! As we tried to find another place we realised everywhere was just crazy. We must be getting old as we couldn’t handle it. Too much loud yelling, scooter horns and drunken men wailing karaoke!!!

We walked back to the hotel, via a K-Mart to pick up a few cans of beer; finally some peace and quiet!