The imperial city of Hue

Hue old city, main gate

Hue - the former imperial city and one of most recommended places to visit in Vietnam. The interesting sightseeing includes the old city's Citadel, the Purple city and the forbidden city inside. The tombs are located just outside Hue and come highly recommended for a visit as well. 

Hue is easy to get a grip on. The main landmark is the Perfume River (Hương Giang), with the old city and the Citadel on the north side and the newer city, including most hotels and restaurants, on the south side. Much of the riverside has wisely been done up as a pleasant promenade and park dotted with bizarre sculptures. The tombs are located further south in the outskirts of Hue.

The overnight train service to Hue was suppose to take us to the city from Hanoi in 12 hours. Cannot say that I slept great because the train was very noisy, with very cold AC on and shaking like a leaf when passing the connecting tracks, nonetheless, we got about 6 hours of good sleep out of it and even had the time left to enjoy the views. 

On the way we saw a lot of separate burials in the middle of the rice fields and it made us wonder if the rice was contaminated because of that. It seems that in Vietnam they don't have any regulations on the subject. 

 

All together it was a pleasant ride and thanks to the Polish guys, Eva and Daniel, we met earlier we found a hotel in no time. Lonely Planet's best advise for Hue was Google hotel and that is where we headed first. Without any problems we scored 3 rooms and even managed to negotiate the price down from 18$ to 16$ per room, which in Vietnam is almost a miracle. 

 

The most pleasant bonus was that all tea, coffee and beer for hotel guests were free of charge. With the six of us, we more than covered the costs of the hotel in beverages consumed :-))

 

We decided to explore the citadel and the old city the same day and the next day to take a taxi to Hoi An and to visit the imperial tombs on the way. The car matter was left for the evening and we hit the town. 

Hue is suppose to be one of the wettest cities in Vietnam where rain is part of life. I actually wondered why the emperor would chose such place to live in. I got my answer the next day. For now, we were walking along the river and over the bridge to the north side of the city to see the citadel and trying to stay dry at the same time. 

 

The military unit is still housed in the citadel's fortification to protect the city. 

 

Paying entrance fee is something that we encountered for the first time in Vietnam when entering the Citadel. In Hanoi we managed everything for free. 

 

Inside, the citadel and the forbidden city were not as impressive as I thought they would be and it can be explained by the fact that everything in the old city was and is still being restored after completely being destroyed in the '50. 

 

Some of the most interesting things to see inside:

 

I liked the theater building a lot, as I just finished reading the book Empress Orchid where the author described in every detail the theater performances in old China and I could imagine every scene from the book taking place in this building. 

On our way out of the Citadel we stumbled on a couple hidden treasures.

We left the Citadel through one of its many entrance gates. They are all different and very beautiful and absolutely worth seeing, but it was starting to rain and we decided to skip viewing the rest.

 

Being in Hue we couldn't miss out on trying the local specialties. Turned out that most of us didn't like the sausage-like stuff in banana leafs but the noodles were quite tasty. 

 

Just as we were done with eating and started to walk towards the city center the rain got really bad and we've ran for shelter to the nearest local joint where finally got the real Vietnamese coffee. In one word: tasty!!! To bad they don't make coffee like that in Amsterdam, otherwise I would have considered starting to drink coffee back home as well. :-))

 

Luckily the rain wasn't planning on bothering us for very long and we continued our walk again to look for the pagoda that was recommended as a "must see" place in Hue.

At first, we stayed on the normal central streets...

... but then the guys took the wrong turn and we were in the middle of the not at all touristy street which was the most authentic one we've seen so far. 

 

Another couple of turns and we were back on the main streets again, just in time to see parents on the motorbikes bringing children home from school.

Still searching for the pagoda we walked into a large street market...

Another 15-20 minutes and we are at the pagoda...

... which turned out to be the wrong one. After another 15 minutes of searching for the pagoda we finally got to the one we were suppose to see. 

Can't say that it was worth searching for for over an 1.5 hours but seeing it we were done for the day. We needed to decide on how to go to Hoi An the next day and also make the arrangements to see the tombs before we left. 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a couple of tourist agencies where we were provided with information on the possible prices for the ride to Hoi An and the tombs. A lot of negotiation didn't pay off as the prices remained unfairly high and we decided to inform at the hotel as a possible option. 

The hotel came up with the solution to hire a car with the driver for the whole trip and we were happy to accept as the price finally seemed fair. We went to Nino's to celebrate the happy occasion. The place was recommended by the hotel as well and we were skeptical at first but luckily we were wrong and the food was amazing. The company was even better and we had a great evening. 

By the time we were done eating it started to rain really hard and the cafe owners borrowed us one red poncho to get back to the hotel. The guys were generous to give it to us and we started walking. From the side it looked like a small dragon during carnival time and we actually scared a guy who ran into us on the street. Daniel made a picture of us three, so hopefully it can be added soon. 

As was mentioned, earlier the next day we were heading towards Hoi An passing the imperial tombs on the way.