I'll keep this one short. Wes and I arrived in Hue with half the day already gone. By time the train had arrived, we had gotten a taxi, and had brunch it was into the afternoon. We got talked into this tour by the reception staff and it turned out to be great. Here's a breakdown of what we did.
From the hostel we crossed the river and our first stop was The Imperial City. A walled fortress and palace. It wasn't in the best of shape as there had been little renovation - is that better? I'm not sure. Hue was the former capital of Vietnam and this is where the big wigs got things done. Built in 1804.
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| The front entrance |
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| The courtyard |
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| A side gate |
Back on the bikes and off to the Thien Mu Pagoda. The Thien Mu Pagoda is a seven-story and is the tallest religious building in Vietnam. Yes, I copied and pasted that from Wikipedia.
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| It was pretty sweet |
Next stop was at the tomb of Minh Mang. He was the second emperor of Vietnam and won a few wars, notably against the Chams (the northern Vietnamese). He also disliked the French, but then who doesn't?
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| It was miles from Hue and down some pretty narrow treacherous roads. It was at this point I thought we were going to get robbed and left in the wilderness. |
Off again, this time to the tomb of Khai Dinh. He was twelfth king of the Nguyen Dynasty. He was another lad who was quite unpopular with the Vietnamese. He collaborated with the French and was a powerless puppet, apparently. He even raised taxes on the Vietnamese peasants. Not quite sure why the locals haven't burnt down his gravesite. What a bastard.
Our final stop was at the abandoned waterfall. It seemed a strange name as I didn't think a waterfall could be inhabited. Anyway, we arrived and it was in fact an abandoned water park. Apparently it's an attraction. We walked around, didn't really fancy a swim the the mucky water and then got back on the bikes home.
It was a good tour. I didn't actually learn anything on the day as the tour guide's accent was pretty strong. I just nodded and said "interesting" when he finished talking. There was some Wikipedia research when I got home.
