Hue, Vietnam, 20 April 2008

We had a big motorbike tour of Hue today, we saw so much in one day! My driver wasn't as fun as the one in Can Tho but it was still fun being back on a bike.

We started at a little fishing village which contained a very old bridge from about the 1700s I think. There was a fortune teller there but I didn't get my fortune done. There was a small museum at the village containing traditional farming tools. A gorgeous little old woman who spoke no english demonstrated everything and explained the process through actions. It was wonderful.

We visited the most famous conical hat maker in Vietnam. One of her arms finishes at the elbow but she makes the most beautiful hats. It takes 8 hours to make a hat, she makes two a day but she only gets about $2 per hat. She makes poem hats, called so because she puts patterns in them which only show when you hold the hat up to the light and they tell a story in pictures.

After a small bout of off-roading we headed up a hill that contained American & French war bunkers. You could see almost all of Hue from the hill which is why it was a good spot to control the city from during the war. We then had lunch at a buddhist nunnery where the food was vegetarian and absolutely delicious! We also visited a cathedral and an incense stick maker, and took a tourist dragon boat over to see a pagoda. Little over pagodas but did spot some trainee monks which made it a little more interesting.

Hue has an incredible history as it was the capital during the Nguyen dynasty when Vietnam was under King rule (1800s). There were 13 kings of the Nguyen dynasty and we visited the tomb of King Tu Doc (number 4) who ruled from 1848-1883. The Vietnamese believe you will receive in the after life what you are buried with so the Kings built extravagant tombs in the belief they would live there in their after life. The one we visited had multiple buildings, the tomb, lakes & gardens. The King would also holiday there before his death. It took about 8 months to build and around 3000 people died building it (construction work wasn't very safe back in those days). The Kings have hundreds of wives & concubines who are all sent to the mausoleum when the king dies to look after it and they are not allowed to remarry. There was so much history and I loved hearing about it all.

We had a quick visit at an old coliseum where the royals pitted elephants against tigers but because the elephants represented the king they would mistreat the tigers (not feed them, destroy their claws) so they would always lose. We saw the pens where the tigers were kept and you could see the claw marks.

Final stop was the Citadel and Imperial palace. It really was breath-taking. An imposing citadel wall that continues for what seems like forever and inside another little street/town area. Then another wall & gate which was the entrance into the Imperial Palace where the king lived. The Imperial Palace was huge but unfortunately most of it was burnt to the ground during the French war. They are currently restoring it based on old photographs and other history items and it's due to be fully restored in 2020. Within the Imperial Palace is the Forbidden Palace which was only for the king, his wives, concubines and the eunuchs. We saw a scale model of the whole area (the way it used to be) and it looked amazing.

A really full on day but it was fantastic!