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

Vietnam: Hue (Part 3 - Tu Doc Tomb)

As per the helpful guides instructions that I will find the Tu Doc tomb 2km away, I finally arrive there - 500 metres down the road.  The entrance fee is 55,000VD (10,000 for Vietnamese - lucky me!) but well worth it!  Walking in through the front gate you are greeted by a royal pond filled with lilies, and today the grounds are dotted with 50 or so art students drawing still life.

Get a job

Opposite the pond is a rather grand set of buildings where the emperor lived during the latter part of his reign before his death, which also includes a concert hall, and sadly only some ruins where once stood the house of Teh Emperor's Ladies.

They weren't courted for their masonry skills if you know what I mean...

If you come to Tu Doc tomb, I recommend first taking a right across the stream, past the building beside the lily pond.  This is the way I went, and it lead to a number of wonderful surprises, each bigger than the last.  Walking along the path in the gloomy drizzle I arrive at the bottom of some slippery steps.  Later I find that if I'd gone the other way I would have read the information sign explaining what this was, but this was better - I climbed up not knowing what I would find. 

All I know is It Belongs In A Museum!!

At the top of the stairs in a small complex, I find a small tomb.  It's quite beautiful in the gloomy rain, no sounds at all nearby.  

Not the kind of place that you want to hear sounds nearby.

God my legs are sexy.  Hmm, what was I saying?

Later I learn that this is the tomb of the Emperor's adopted son, who had a short reign after his death.

Further exploring the grounds, I come across an even grander entrance to a tomb that belongs to the first wife of the Emperor.  I'm finding the architecture and tranquility stunningly beautiful.

To-mb-many pictures of tombs.

Some say it's To-mb-uch to handle   Tomb-orrow I'll - ok I'll stop now.  Sorry.  I won't do it again.

I saved the grandest for last - walking up a small hill, I'm greeted by a larg Stele [That's big funeral enscriptiony stoney thing to simple folk like you] and two large obelisks.  

And one Asterix

Behind them is a pond lined with trees, and stairs leading up to the Emperor Tu Doc's tomb.  This one is the largest so far - but feels empty and lonely to me.  The truth is - Tu Doc's body isn't actually buried here.  Purportedly, when the Emperor died his body was secretly taken away and buried in a hidden location.  When the 200 hundred workers returned from burying the Emperor, they were beheaded so that no-one would find the location. 

Now that story is badass.

The best part about Tu Doc tomb, is that apart from the art students, I only saw at most 10 tourists.  Maybe it was the drizzle or the time of year, but it was brilliant being able to explore the tomb site undisturbed and alone.



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

Vietnam: Hue (Part 2)

Today I want to see some of the old Vietnamese Emperor tombs [multiple emperors [[emperori??]]- not one guy with his leg in a tomb over here, an arm over there etc etc] plus the Hue citadel so I have a lot of trekking to do.  The citadel is walkable in about 20 minutes from my accommodation, but the tombs are between 5 and 40 kilometers away from the centre of Hue so I intend to rent a bicycle to get around.

Naturally, I rented a motorbike.


Walking down the road to compare the hotel's bicycle rental prices with a rental shop down the road, I come across a chap wanting to rent out a motorcycle.  I bargained him down to 130,000VD for the day which I thought was a reasonable price for a full day's riding (about 6 bucks).  My vague plan is to first visit Ho Quyen Arena, which sounds badass to me.  Back in the 19th century, the arena was used to pit elephants and lions against each other in a battle to the death.

A battle of cuteness!!!!!  (*･∀･)／♡＼(･∀･*)

Source: http://lapar.com/

I'm pretty good at reading maps, but the map that I am given from the hotel desk is vague at best, and inaccurate at worst.  Stopping locals and asking for help doesn't help either, as out of Hue central away from the tourist touts, no-one seems to be able to speak any English, and when they look at the map they develop a very confused look on their face and give the sorry I can't help you hand signals.  After some to -ing and fro-ing for about an hour trying to find this god-damned arena I finally give up and head off-road to find Tu Doc Tomb after a brief coffee at a cafe.

James needs his crack

A few kilometers away, after using my mental GPS system, I arrive at the end of a small dirt road and find a small empty tourist bus at the end of it which is always a good sign.  I pull up next to the bus driver.

"Is this Tu Doc Tomb?" I ask.
He frantically gestures for me to go up the hill past the closed chain.
Are you sure? I communicate waving my arms.
Yes, go that way! he flails back.
Thank You.


I proceed to drive the motorbike around the gate, and stop just in time to see a nasty string of barbed wire across the trees.  They don't seem to want me to go up there - but the bus driver does.

Bus driver wins.

Navigating 10 meters or so into the forest I can go around the barbed wire and up some small dirt trails to the hilltop.  At the hilltop I'm greeted with some concrete bunkers, and a spectacular view of the Perfume river.

Protip:  Not actually made of perfume.  Don't make the same mistake I did.

Not quite the tomb I was looking for but interesting nonetheless - especially since I have no idea where I am or what this place is.

The quietest place in Vietnam is what this place is.

After a few minutes of unusual silence the tour group comes clambering around the corner of a ridge.  It turns out this is a famous Vietnam War (aka the American War) location.
The tour guide points me in the right direction to the tomb I'm looking for - go back to the main road, turn right, and 2 kilometers down the road I will find it....  off we go!


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

Vietnam: Hue (Part 1)

It rained the first night there.

Yup

I got wet.

Uh huh

I had beer.

And I wanted to steal the home made opener.

But I didn't.

CSB (Cool story bro)

I'll make sure Part 2 is more interesting.




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

Vietnam: Train Trip to Hue

I board the 23:00 train south to Hue.  I'm gonna be cruisin' in style with a soft sleeper ticket.  When the boarding gates are opened I join the asian train scramble to get on board.  (One does not simply walk onto a train in asia - you scramble).

Or if you're the boss, you swagger.

I'm sharing a cabin with a Vietnamese family and a friend, and I notice my train ticket doesn't say "Foreigner" on it like tourists usually get.  The viets speak very little english - and one man in particular who seems especially keen to talk - has zero English capability.
It's fun to communicate using hand signals and drawing on paper for a while - though he is a little in my comfort zone.  He's very touchy feely, and has absolutely no problem sitting on my bunk and touching my stuff.

That's probably his foot sticking out of my blanket right there.

Eventually we get underway, the cabin door is shut, and the lights are turned off.  I'm impressed by the little footholds that fold down so that you can climb up onto the upper bunks - you can see one in the picture above next to my sexily socked foot.  The train altogether has a really cool 60s eastern bloc vibe going on.

It's cool because it doesn't have a k on the end.

The man on the bunk above lets out an amazing sneeze which I'm sure showered the cabin.  The woman on the bunk opposite me has a great sleep - I have never experienced so much loud snoring in my life.  All that aside - I had a rather good nap, albeit with some pretty strange dreams.

That's not raindrops on the window.  That's sneeze.

Morning comes, and it's a beautiful day so I go back to sleep.  An hour or two later, I'm woken by a hustle and bustle and my roommates are rushing to get off the train at Vinh.  You have to be quick because they only seem to stop at the train station for about 2-3 minutes before it leaves again.  No new customers come in to the cabin so we are left to enjoy the rest of the trip and a trolley cart breakfast in peace.

Get yo hands offa my chicken!

It's roughly 9:30am and I'm due to be in Hue at 10:50 so not long to go!  Naturally, four hours later I arrive at Hue.

German efficiency this most certainly is not.