Vietnam: Hue (Part 4 - Citadel)

Warning: This post contains no humorous content.  You have been warned.


I originally planned to find a couple more tombs on my motorbike, but Tu Doc Tomb was larger and took longer to walk around than expected, so I decide to visit the Citadel in Hue as I'm leaving on the train tomorrow.  After having to manually kick-start the motorbike as the starter motor seems to have died, I head back to town, stopping off at the train station to buy a ticket to Da Nang.  Sadly, the ticket lady won't sell me a Hard Seat and so I have to get a a Soft Seat.  At 70,000VD I guess it's not too bad - but I would have preferred the hard seat to be honest.  It's only a 4-5 hour trip!

Back on the bike and across one of the bridges spanning the Perfume River, I arrive at the Citadel which you can think of as the smaller Vietnamese version of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Sadly, most of the buildings here were destroyed in the war, but it's still worth a visit.  The entire complex is surrounded by a beautiful lily-filled moat and stone wall.  Inside, you can find the odd remaining building here and there, but the majority of buildings were destroyed at some point in the 20th century which is a damn shame.


Unlike Tu Doc tomb, there were a few more tourists here but since the area is so large you can quite easily walk around and avoid the small tour groups if you wish to do so.

Tucked away in a corner of the citadel were two elephants.  This is one of them.  In front of a grave stone.  See, even the captions aren't funny.

After returning the motorbike at 5pm, and a quick shower, it's time for a leisurely stroll back across the bridge to North Hue to get some dinner.  Oh yeah by the way - I heartily recommend driving a motorbike across the river bridge at rush hour for quite an experience.


Protip:  Walk past the restaurants boasting about their recommendations in Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor etc. - their menus strangely are full of western food, and their prices are over inflated.  You can find much better and cheaper meals at one of the many restaurants along the dark road beside the moat and outer citadel wall.







Part 1: Lame
Part 2: Better
Part 3: Mildly educational
Part 4: Not Funny