Hue Cool

Coming into my trip to Southeast Asia, Hue was one of the places to which I was most looking forward. It used to be the capital of Vietnam, has a rich history, and also has a significant recent history with the battle that took place there following the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. With the exception of the weather, I wasn’t disappointed in Hue.

After arriving in Hue and having lunch, we had a little walking tour of the city. The weather was horrible but we still went on for a little while. We started off by going to the Citadel and the Imperial City, the seat of power for the Nguyen Dynasty. The Citadel was also the finishing point for the Battle of Hue in 1968. Like many of the places that we have seen in Vietnam, the Citadel and Imperial City show damage that occurred not only during the Vietnam War (or American War as it is known here) but also during occupations and wars by/with China, Japan and France.

In the evening, the group went to a dinner in which they dressed like Vietnamese kings and were fed the meals of the Vietnamese kings. I imagine that meant cheese because I couldn’t imagine a cheesier event. I’m sure they had fun, but I decided to skip out on that event and foraged for food on my own.

The next day was one of the highlights of the entire Southeast Asia trip for me so far. We took a six-hour sightseeing tour of Hue by motorbike. In the rain. I’m not sure if my insurance would have covered anything that had gone wrong, but it was worth the risk. Going through the busy streets of Hue on a motorbike gave me a completely different perspective on the traffic that I had seen throughout Vietnam and on the city that I had seen. You might think that riding on the back of a motorbike in the rain would be pretty miserable, but after having walked around in the streets the night before in the rain, riding on the motorbike was actually pretty pleasant.

During the tour, we made several stops. We stopped at one point to view one of three covered bridges in Vietnam. (Or so it was described.) There was also a little market at the site. A few minutes later, we stopped to watch a Vietnamese Kung Fu show. It was very touristy, but entertaining nonetheless. We moved on to a place where we watched a woman making incense, and then to a former French, then American army base where small and large battles had taken place throughout the post-World War II era. Our guide for this part was seven during the Tet Offensive and was able to tell very interesting stories about that time in Hue history.

Later, we went on to a Buddhist orphanage. We had a fantastic lunch and then went inside to play with some of the children. We kicked the ball around and laughed with the children for a while. One of the little boys rubbed my belly and called me Buddha, but otherwise I had a great time.

After the motorcycle trip, we went on a boat tour of the Perfume River and visited a pagoda on the river bank. At the temple of the pagoda, there was a Buddhist prayer ceremony taking place. It was interesting to see, but I always felt intrusive when watching something like that, so I was a tad bit uncomfortable.

Sadly, we weren’t in Hue for very long and that was about all of the time that we had for sightseeing. I felt like I took advantage of what was available and was able to fit a lot into the short period of time in which I was there, but I think it would have been nice to have spent a little more time there.