Imperial City of Hue

I explored Hue in two days: the main sights are the Imperial Enclosure (with the Purple Forbidden City and other palaces around) and the royal tombs a little outside of town. This is the heritage of the Nguyen dynasty who ruled the country from 1804 to 1945, when the Emperor Bao Dai abdicated in favor of Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary government. The city went through tough times during the Vietnam War, when it was conquered by the Viet Cong and held for 24 days, during which the Viet Cong slaughtered around 1,000 people suspected of sympathizing with the South, and then subject to an American bombing campaign to retake the city. This distroyed major parts of the city. However, in a huge effort, the city was and is still being rebuilt. The UNESCO world heritage status helps very much in this undertaking.

I rented a bicycle to explore the tombs. However, given the poor state of the bicycle and its small size, it was not that easy to get around and I looked probably quite ridiculous on this thing. At least it was a great laugh for many people along the road. But it is was fun to travel slowly and the rice fields passing by twith the people working there... while I was on holiday.. ;-) Unfortunately, people were too far away and it was a mistake to take the picture with the digital zoom as the resolution is so bad that I cannot publish any of the pics except one (see below). But I just love these conical hats everybody is wearing here: the fishermen on the boat, the people working in the fields... especially women because they want to keep a pale skin. They sometimes even wear a scarve underneath to cover most of their faces in order not to get tanned. It seems to be an insult to a Vietnamese women to tell her that she has a nice tan (and in Europe it is just the opposite, everybody wants to get a nice tan.. ;-) cultures are really different). I also saw an elephant and his owner just next to the street and the elephant was ripping out small banana trees of a plantation and enjoyed eating them. But nobod around seemed to worry.. perhaps this was his personal garden and the banana trees were just planted for him, but it did not look like it..

The tombs are all in a magnificent setting, beautiful landscape (on a hill or on the side of a river). The weather however, was cold and really cloudy, so the picture does not look that attractive, but this would change so much woth a beautifuk blue sky behind.. but for my friends and colleagues in Brussels this is not anything new.. ;-) At the end of the day it even started raining, which was not very pleasant on the bike.

Below you see the soup I had for lunch on the market (see picture) . It was very tasty and everybody has them in the street or on the market. .. ;-) And yet again, I loved to stroll through the local market's lively tiny streets. Just walk through and experience the atmosphere.. there are always plenty of things happening: people bargaining, arguing, shouting at each other, people carrying incredible amounts of stuff in their baskets, etc. It is just fascinating. I took loads of photos - again!!

In the evening I went to a typical trourist restaurant recommended bu the Lonely Planet, which was - I think - a real rip-off. The really nice thing about it was the decorations: I particularly liked the fried spring rolls served on tooth-sticks which they stuck into a half pineapple set up as a peacock !! (see picture). On the way to the restaurant I got lost since the motorbike-taxi-driver said he knew where the restaurant was, but in fact did not. He problem was that an English speaking colleague of his negotiated evything with him and the guy did not speak a word of Englisg. I cannot blame him, since I do not speak Vietnamese.. but it was extremely annoying.. It took ageds and the help of two teenage girls to make him understand that he went too far and we have to go back .. Whereas the whole day I had to tell all the hundreds of moto-drivers that I do not need their services and once I wanted to take one there was none. I had to walk almost for a kilometer before I saw one..

Pictures:

- me with onbe of the statues of a guard of one of the tombs
- detail of a tomb made out of peices of porcellaine
- always take your shoes off before entering a temple !!
- market impressions
- incens shops (I saw how they are produced.. quite interesting..;-))