A trip to Hue - Vietnam

Our trip to Hue, the old imperial city of Vietnam

Our hotel in Hue was La Residence Hotel, a fantastic French colonial style which is located on the banks of the Perfume River. The only drawback is that it's a bit away from downtown, where restaurants, shops and night life, but nothing that can not be solved with a ten-minute walk.

We were lucky because in Hue every two years a kind of cultural festival is held and coincidentally was being held in the days that we were. For this festival, the entire town was decorated for the occasion and there was a concert at night, I suppose they would have more activities but our knowledge of the Vietnamese language only little that we came for the concerts.

We started the day with an excursion boat on the Perfume River, the road to the monastery Thien Mu pagoda, which was a center of Buddist monks. During the visit could see young people as apprentices practising traditional Chinese writing.

In this temple are also seeing a large stele in the year 1715 on a huge turtle and a great bell of 2 tons of weight that you can hear some 10 km away .. The turtles are very important in Vietnam because they are symbols of longevity.

After the visit to the monastery, we went to see the Imperial City. As its name suggests, is the city where there lived the emperor and his entire family and his court. It is a pity that the various wars in Vietnam have destroyed most buildings that formed the citadel, although there are still some standing and can be visited. We started coming in through the main gate of the citadel, the door of Ngo Mon. By which the emperor went through its central corridor, the rest of humanity had to enter through the side aisles. Then we went to see the Thai Hoa Palace that was where the emperor had his meetings with the officials. It is a room with a high throne, where sat the emperor, and with 80 columns of carved wood.

Then we went to the Forbidden Purple City, a town inside the citadel. That is, the part of the city where the emperor lived with the royal concubines. This part is virtually in ruins because of the continuing wars in Vietnam

Finally we went to the temple To Mieu, which is a temple dedicated to the emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty. Inside there are nine ballot boxes that serve as the altar for offerings to the various emperors.

Here the heat was beginning to be suffocating and we had to go looking for the shadows because it was impossible to spend more than 5 minutes in the sun. It is a pity that so much pressure because the sun is a place to spend some time strolling around the perimeter of the citadel

Before we continued our journey through the tombs of emperors Khai Dinh and Tu Duc we had to go through the hotel to take an umbrella to protect us from the sun. Our guide Anh, who has experience in these things, and came with one. So we continue the visit under the shadow of the umbrella

We started by the tomb of Khai Dinh. This tomb has nothing to do with the others, because everything is made of cement and, although it was spectacular anyway, it gives a feeling of decadence. The highlight of this grave yard of honor made up of soldiers mandarins sculptures and staircases with handrails and dragons to celebrate the emperor.

We continued, despite the sweltering heat, on the way to the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. The emperor was the longest reign. His life was surrounded by luxuries and although he had 104 wives and some other concubines, had no offspring.

Although it is called Tomb, this area was where the emperor spent his moments of retreat, besides the emperor is not buried there, so the place where he is buried is a mystery. In this' tomb 'is a pier on a lake, several houses, including a theatre and the area where the concubines lived. The emperor also had its courtyard formed by the honor guard of honor of the emperor. These sculptures could not be higher than the emperor and the emperor half little more than half a meter so that you can imagine that they are not very high. What it does there are very large, is a stele with the life of the emperor, written by the same, weighing about 20 tons.

After these visits we went to eat. This time it took us to a restaurant where we tasted every dish that we got to eat. Besides the draw dishes decorated with animal shapes made from fruits and vegetables. The restaurant is called Y Thao Garden and is inside the citadel surrounded by lush vegetation.

In the afternoon we took a walk through the village looking at some concerts of the cultural programming of the festival which was taking place.

When the dinner took us to another restaurant (sorry, but this I do not remember the name) where scenarios while enjoying some traditional songs. Well it turned out that we were led to a restaurant where there was no one else was having dinner. It was a dinner for the two of us alone, sitting in front row, while the group of traditional music played in front of us. At first we were a little embarrassed, but the second song that almost sang with them.

The next day we were going to Hoi An

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