The maximum highway speed is 80km and with villages along the way and cows crossing the road regularly, the actual speed is much less. Therefore the bus trip from Hoi An to Hue, although a short hop on the map, took a good five hours with the air conditioning only working for the first 30 minutes. We were sweat soaked by the time we arrived. The hotel was a surprise. For $40/night we had a room on the 6th floor overlooking the river, two wide beds, air conditionning that worked great, a modern bathroom, buffet breakfast, and great joy, an elevator to carry us and our luggage up in style!
Since we are only planning two nights and one full day in this city, our first stop was a travel agency (the same Inge and I used on our first trip) where we booked our train tickets to Sapa and - for the first time - arranged a city tour to take in the highlights of Hue the next day. After a long stroll along the Perfume River waterfront and by now quite weary, we fell asleep early.
Motorcyle taxis picked us up the next morning and ferried us to the large City Tour bus. Thank god this was a surprise as we probably would have had some qualms doing it had we had time to contemplate it. Our first stop was the Tomb of Minh Mang, renowned for its architecture and sublime natural setting on the Perfume River, 12 km outside town. The complex is built in a continuous stretch, each segment a new surprise.
The next stop was the tomb of Khai Dinh, emperor of Vietnam from 1916 to 1925 and widely seen as a puppet of the French. He died penniless in France and taxes were raised for 11 years to build this edifice. Built on a steep mountain side, the exterior of the buildings is covered in black concrete while the interiors are lavishly decorated in colourful mosaic.
After a karate show, which Helen enjoyed but I skipped, we explored the enormous grounds of Tu Duc's mausoleum which include a small lake, hunting grounds and various pavillons where the monarch used to sit with his 104 (no typo) concubines and recite poetry - he was eventually killed for his debaucery.
After lunch, it was off to the citadel, the pride and joy of Hue. Nearly totally flattened during the American War it is being restored, although the pace of re-construction is painfully slow (I could barely see a difference from last year). One area unaffected was the king mother's residence where the monarch went every morning to pay his respects (oh, how things have changed).......
We walked and walked in the midday heat, nearly circling the grounds and then walked some more visiting the Tu Thieu Pagoda, before taking a relaxing 30 minute Perfume River boat ride back to our City Tour starting point. Too tired to walk , we took a bicyle rickshaw (!) back to the hotel and a much needed shower.
At 06:45 tomorrow morning we'll continue northward to visit Dong Hoi and the caves of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park............
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