The Way to Hue

On Sunday we left beautiful Hoi An and traveled two hours to Hue (pronounced "Way").  On the way, we passed through the city of Da Nang, now a commercial city but well-known in the U.S. during the Vietnam War for the U.S. military base that was here.  It was also well-known for China Beach, a popular R&R spot for U.S. military personnel during the war.  As you can see, it wasn't exactly beach-going weather; however, China Beach was beautiful even in the approaching storm.

Word on the street is that we were about to catch a taste of monsoon season in this part of the country.  The good news:  The storm dropped the temperature about 20 degrees and made the humidity hardly noticeable.  I actually wore a little sweater for two days.  (I never saw that one coming!)   The bad news:  It rained nonstop for the entire time we were in Hue and kind of put a damper on our time there.  (It's hard to have a lot of fun when you're walking around in a big yellow rain poncho looking like Big Bird and trying to juggle a camera, cell phone, purse, tote bag and umbrella while trying not to get the whole mess soaking wet while taking pictures, trying not to drop anything, trying to follow and listen to your tour guide and trying not to crash into anyone. There's not much in the way of peripheral vision going on with a poncho hood pulled all the way forward.)

As we drove to Hue, the storm started to blow in - literally.

Despite the storm, we covered quite a bit of ground in Hue over the two days we were there. For many years, Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam.  We got to see the remnants of Vietnam's miniature version of Beijing's Forbidden City.  This was the imperial complex where the kings of Vietnam ruled and lived with their wives, concubines, children and many, many servants.  Sadly, most of this complex was destroyed during the war, as Hue was the site of heavy fighting.  These are some of the structures that remain and that have been restored to their former glory.

While in Hue we also toured the Thien Mu Pagoda.  There is a very famous picture from the Vietnam War period of a monk lighting himself on fire in the middle of the street in Saigon in protest of the North Vietnamese government's harsh treatment of Buddhists.  This was that monk's home pagoda.

Then we toured the tomb of Vietnam's longest-reigning emperor, Emperor Tu Duc.  He was a very sad emperor who was what the Vietnamese call a "paper emperor" (what we would call a puppet emperor).  He ruled when the French were in control of Vietnam, so he had no real power.   He also could not father a child in spite of his many wives and over 100 concubines.  It is thought that having had smallpox as a child made him sterile.  All the Vietnamese emperors built their own elaborate tomb complexes.  The difference with Tu Duc was that this sad emperor decided to live in his tomb complex for the last 16 years of his life.  Yeah, that's not morbid.  

At the end of our two days in Hue, it was something of a relief to fly on to Hanoi in the far north of the country.  From there we traveled on to the amazing Halong Bay.  I'll have details and pictures for you tomorrow - if the incredibly bad wifi in our Hanoi hotel allows me to upload them, that is.