The Old Capital Hue

After our hiking and climbing excursions in Ha Long Bay, Jon and I took an overnight train from Hanoi to Hue, the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945. We shared a sleeper car with a lovely couple from Austria. They had previously toured Myanmar and thoroughly enjoyed it; they made us contemplate the possibilities of sailing there on our way to Sri Lanka... Just before arriving in Hue that morning, we passed through the former Demilitarized Zone, the DMZ, one of the heaviest bombed areas of the war. That day, we passed nothing but rice paddies coated in a foggy mist that were full of farmers pulling weeds and tending to the needs of their precious crop.

The old city of Hue sits on the north side of the Perfume River (Song Hurong) inside a large citadel that protected the capital and its residential nobility. The rest of the city spreads out across both sides of the river. The citadel's walls are quite thick, so while the area was heavily damaged during bombing attacks, the outer citadel itself held. Inside the first citadel is another citadel that housed the royal government, and inside that, another citadel, called the Forbidden City, which enclosed the private residence of the royal family. The flagpole you see in the photo is the largest in Vietnam and held the Viet Cong flag for 13 days during the Tet offensive of 1968. Jon and I were surprised at the effect the Vietnamese flag could have on us. Though we were children during the war, it still could occasionally instill a bit of fear and apprehension; perhaps we'd seen too many movies since we were never here before.

Sadly, the Fobidden City was mostly destroyed by bombing. Hue was bombed by both the North and the South, given its central location. The entrance no longer exists and most of the private residences are gone. What remains, however, is slowly being restored. After re-unification in 1975, the Communist government was not too keen on preserving Dynastic relics so they remained neglected for years after the war. Now that tourism brings much needed foreign currency, their historic significance is being appreciated. Here, a man is cleaning a newly painted exterior wall that encases a long hall.

Buddhism has a strong hold in Central Vietnam and Hue is home to many pagodas and monasteries. The Chua Thien Mu is one of the more iconic in all of Vietnam. It was built in 1601 and has seven stories, making it the tallest pagoda in Vietnam. We took a taxi from the citadel and he tried to charge a flat rate of 50,000 dong, but we insisted that he use the meter, which only cost us about 27,000 dong. It's a complicated emotional process dealing with taxis, cyclo drivers and boat taxis. First of all, you quickly get used to thinking in terms on dong alone, not in what they translate into dollars, and thousands seems like a lot of money.....But in reality, it was 19,500 dong to the dollar so we were quibbling over a $1.50 and felt petty afterward. We took a boat taxi back and ended up paying 100,000 dong, almost four times the amount of a metered taxi, but $5 in the end.

We finished touring Chua Thien Mu and its grounds in the early evening and were treated to a beautiful sunset on the Perfume River. It was as lovely as it was copacetic.

The fishermen's boats let us know that we could be nowhere other than Vietnam, and we felt lucky to be able to experience this beautiful sunset on the Perfume River in the City of Hue, with the mountains of the Central Highlands in the background. We had to pinch ourselves. We hoped that the fishermen's nets were full as they pulled them in for the day.

In the city itself, we enjoyed the park along the river. It was still full of flowers and decorations for Tet. Below, pointed straw hats had been turned into lanterns.

Along this park, we also noticed vendors selling what they purported to be antique pottery. As Jon and I were looking, knowing that we could never tell the difference between antique and distressed, we noticed a surprising display. US military dog tags were for sale. We were surprised because we thought these things were returned as part of the MIA/reconciliation efforts. The vendor did not speak English and we didn't speak Vietnamese, so this encounter raised more questions than it answered. If anyone knows more about this, please feel free to inform us.

Our time in Hue, the historic capital of Vietnam, was short. Straddling a river, and housing the under-renovation Citadel, Hue reminded us of the long, pre-colonial dynastic history of Vietnam, a history that seems -- despite the initial inclinations of the current Government -- to be acknowledged and appreciated.