Hue way

After a long night train ride, we arrived. in Hue. It is situated along the coast, in central Vietnam. It is very close to what was the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), making Hue one of the areas heavily impacted by fighting due the Vietnam war (or the American War as the Vietnamese call it). Hue was the capital city until the end of Imperialism. When Ho Chi Minh declared communism he came to Hue to take control of the country from the last Emperor and then moved the capital to Hanoi.

We were greeted at the doors of our hotel by ladies with roses, cool refreshing hand towels and glasses of juice. All very civilized. I wonder if I can get my neighbours to take up that custom when I return home?

The afternoon was spent visiting the areas most famous pagoda, then a lovely ride down the Perfume River back to the city centre. We had a freshen up and then off to dinner at a restaurant still using recipes and cooking methods used for the emperors. We were treated a wonderful musical performance with local singers and traditional instruments. Each instrument is only capable of playing 5 notes, but it was very melodic. The two ladies were also playing cups. They places two small teacups in each hand and tinged them together. If any of us tried that we'd have broken the cups within two minutes.

The following day we had a morning trip to the Citadel (a walled city - I just learned that term on this trip). It is in fact three walled areas within each other. The innermost was the Forbidden City for the Imperial family, the next one out was for the Mandarins and Military leaders and finally the outpost area was for the regular folks. A lot of the areas were destroyed during the various wars

In the afternoon I found myself off to an Internet cafe to upload photos and catch up on mail. Read my separate entry for that experience.

The following day we were off to Hoi An by bus. Each place has had a similar flavour, but yet very distinctive qualities. To quote the famous Southeast Asian expression; Same, same but different.