Hue (Pronouced Way)

The drive from Hoi An to Hue is said to be the most scenic in all of S.E.Asia. It is hairpin bends all the way up a mountain till you get to the Hai Van pass where you look down onto crystal clear lagoons (and a leper colony). The Top Gear team spent along time praising the wonders of this drive. The train goes half way up the mountain and offers spectacular views as well. The bus however... well that goes through a tunnel in the mountain. On exiting the tunnel, the views were staggering and for once I was sat on the correct side of the bus to see it all. We got stuck in roadworks at one point but nobody minded a jot. It was quite disappointing to arrive at our destination.

Hue is a city split into two by a great river. Unless they are atop a mountain I have not come across a Vietnamese city that does not sit on the banks of a mighty river. The Perfume River (or Song Huong in Vietnamese) splits the new city from the old. In the new city there are the hotels, shops, restaurants whilst the old city not surprisingly hosts the old citadel. This moated citadel (looking a bit like an outer castle from a distance) was built by the Emperor in 1804. Inside this walled city are pagodas and ceremonial temples but the majority of it lies in ruins. You guessed it - the Americans bombed it - alot. The government is spending alot of time and money trying to restore it to its former glory. The wonder of the site is that you go from a throne room to a burnt ruined wall, you believe there is nothing there but if you peer around some gateways in the wall, instead of finding rubble you sometimes stumble across full standing houses or temples.

I spent a couple of hours exploring the complex and found amongst other things alot of hedges shaped into giant tortoises. There was the odd elephant as well but the tortoises outnumbered them significantly. I also found the private buddhist temple that belonged to the emperor's mother. The temple is still active today and the shrine had lots of offerings, what was unusual was that there was no guard sat outside. Even the toilets and the tortoise topiary had their own guards but the holiest place in the complex obviously wasn't deemed important enough! I left the citadel at a different gate from the one I had entered which was fortunate otherwise I would not have spotted the random collection of tanks and American aircraft that appeared to be lining the street. Did the Americans take any of their tanks home? because I have come across a fair number which appear to have been left in the street.

Hue is the city where the emperors once presided and as such it is also the city where they died. Hue has several royal tombs dotted around its outskirts and I took a trip to visit a couple of them. The tombs are set in large areas of land, some have forests and lakes that make up the sites. They are truly serene places. The tombs have a number of pagodas set in the grounds and Mandarin warrior statues (think terracotta soldiers but not as well made). the tombs also have a gateway somewhere within them that was only ever opened once and then sealed forever. It was opened to let the emperors coffin pass through. After passing the gateway, the coffin was taken into underground tunnels and laid to rest somewhere. the tunnels were collapsed afterwards to stop people knowing the location, or stealing the body or the grave goods.

The tombs were designed by the emperors when they were still alive and obviously they all tried to outdo their predecessors by being more beautiful, more symbolic or in the case of Khai Dinh (the penultimate emperor, he died in 1925) more gaudy. He broke with tradition and had a life sized statue and throne built out of mosaic. It was an interesting day out even if the heat and 100% humidity were really getting to me now. In fact I was coming down with a bad cold and sinusitis. Even walking down a flight of stairs when you are running a temperature here turns into an ordeal. I had no other choice but to take a couple of days off. I booked extra nights in the hotel and simply slept and rested. My hotel room even had a bath tub so I could have a long soak to relive my aching bones. When I was feeling half way human again I had to get moving and book on the dreaded and feared sleeper bus to Hanoi. It was a 14 hour journey and as I knew I wouldn't get any sleep, I wasn't looking forward to it ...