Hue, Vietnam

Hue is simply lovely. It couldn't have been a more perfect place to transition from the slow pace of Laos to fast-paced Vietnam. Hue is a moderately sized city sliced down the middle by the Perfume River and extremely well-preserved architecturally. It is large enough to support bands of taxis and rickshaw (cyclos as they're known here) drivers, but small enough to walk most places under 30 minutes. I am staying on a backpacker's side street across the river from the Imperial City filled with little cafes, street side food vendors, and guesthouses. Across the street is a cafe called, "Cafe on Thu Wheels", which specializes in motorbike tours of the surrounding countryside. One thing Hue is known for is its plethora of Royal Tombs, most built between the 18th and the 20th centuries. I signed up for a solo tour and soon found myself on the back of a moto being the only one wearing a helmet in all of Vietnam! My driver was a lovely man named Dat who spoke English very well and was quite knowledgeable about the sites which we visited. He had a knack for showing up to each site just as a tour bus of tourists was leaving and urging me to leave just as another one was pulling up. We visited the Tu Hieu Pagoda during prayer time of the monks. It was a wonderful spectacle to witness with the chanting monks, the burning incense, and the deep bass of the gong. I managed to capture their voices on my sound recorder, which, when I listen to it now gives me goosebumps! We then proceeded to visit 2 royal tombs, the tombs of Emperor Minh Mang and Emperor Tu Duc. Both were rather similar in layout: spaced around a lake with wooded countryside surrounding them. They were quite serene and one could see the heavy influence the Chinese had on them architecturally. While going from place to place we stuck to the back roads which gave me an opportunity to see village life first hand. The houses were all painted in shades of pastel yellows, oranges, pinks, and greens, water buffalo were everywhere, rice fields were verdant shades of green, local markets were bustling, and everyone was armed with a smile. Quite a change when one considers these villages were a mere 6 kilometers outside the bustling city of Hue.

Today was a perfect day for setting out of foot: overcast and cool. I headed for the walled Imperial City across the river going slowly and shooting photos of daily life. The Imperial City was very similar architecturally to Beijing's Forbidden City. I will say that the Forbidden City far outshines that of Hue's Imperial City and so I was not much moved by the sites here. I far more enjoyed my time exploring the city on foot, smiling at locals, shopping the markets, and eating at the restaurant "Lac Thein" run by deaf mutes for over 30 years. The food was excellent, I ordered local roll-'em-yourself veggie spring rolls served with a fish enhanced peanut sauce, basil, green figs, cucumbers, and (finally!) extremely spicy chili sauce. After ordering a beer, the owner proceeded to hand me my very own inscribed wooden bottle opener and instructed me to go back to my home country, open a bottle a beer, and send him a photo, something which I most definitely plan to do.

I will be leaving Hue tomorrow morning on a bus headed 3 hours south for Hoi An, a city even smaller and supposedly even nicer than Hue. I imagine things will just keep getting better here in Vietnam!