Vietnam Part 3 – Hue City

 

We woke this morning and after breakfast decided that we would walk the 2.5km to the Citadel, an ancient city of old Vietnam and the building block of the new city of Hue. We strolled along the river in the breeze of the early morning, the sun was up but hadn’t started to bake the skin and cause sweat to drip down your back. Passing by the Saigon Morin hue hotel, a luxury hotel were all American troops stayed during their occupation and over the bridge we walked and soaked up the atmosphere of the locals making early morning preparations for their day. Past the basket carries with their heavy loads and the myriad of pushbikes ringing bells and dodging car and motorbikes, we made it to the gates of the once mighty Citadel.

It was about now that I reached into my pocket to discover that I didn’t have my wallet. I panicked for a couple of seconds, then realized that it was back in the hotel. So now the setting changes from peaceful to hot and bothered in a instant. We managed to get a bicycle Taxi (known as a Cyclo) to take us to the hotel and back. The rate seemed reasonable. And this saved us trudging our way back across town as the air was starting to heat up..

The mighty Citadel, once home to thousands of soldiers and the residence of great rulers this is a part of Hue that cannot be missed. I entrance is grand and the giant Square and Huge flag of Soviet Vietnam can be seem for miles. Surrounded by a moat that also acted as an irrigation system the complex covers five square kilometers and is accessible by foot over the entire area.

You’ll need a good couple of hours to view the Citadel and we left through the same gate we entered by to find out trusty Cyclo driver waiting for us. He offered to take us to another museum next door, an army museum but we decided against this and asked to go back to the hotel.

You have to be careful when negotiating with the locals. We had negotiated with our ever so friendly Cyclo driver to take us to the hotel, back to the Citadel and then return us to the hotel again. Suddenly when we returned he stopped 200m from the hotel and asked for double the payment, as there was two people! We were shocked by this tactic and refused to pay the fare. Why did he stop 200m away from the hotel? Because there was security there and he didn’t want trouble. Remember – negotiate and stick to your price.

There is so much to see in Hue, we decided that after walking the rivers edge in the early morning we would travel up the river by boat, as according to the local map there were pagodas and temples worth exploring. According a local lady who was our guide on the boat some of the temples were miles up river and with the amount of day that we had left there was no time to see all, however we decided that there was a pagoda and one of the ancient rulers summer palaces that were about 2 hours up stream.

Travelling by river in our covered long boat of course we were captive audience for our non English-speaking guide to open her cabinet of items for sale. Ugh, if these people could only understand the words no thank you.

 

I guess it’s not their fault, more mine for failing to understand the culture of this land. “Everyone’s a salesperson” but in this environment you have to be. Vietnamese see westerners as people of fast wealth and how do I explain that I too have financial commitments back home and that I am on a limited budget during my time here. These people are forced into this sell sell sell type of existence not by overseers but by one simple choice survival.

The pagoda perched on the bank of the river like a sentinel guarding the rivers of time made us step back and ponder this countries rich architectural flavour mixed with the sounds of pneumatic drills and workers operating at a feverish pace restoring a large temple in the background. Our stop here was short as we still had a long way to go up river.

We travelled on in silence; well should I say that there was no need for talking as the chugging of the engine on our long boat drowned out our thoughts let alone speech. The banks of the perfume river seemed peaceful oblivious of the commotion of the river boats trawling tourists to and fro, the Vietnamese people trudging the wares to markets and the fishermen perched precariously on their almost sunken crafts bobbing in the wake created by our long boat.

We finally arrived at our destination, what looked like a goat track leading to the bank of the river. Perhaps we were not there yet and this was some sort of trick to get us to pay more money for the long boat! We were motioned to get off by our non English-speaking guide. As we followed her up the goat track and through the tall grasses that lined the riverbank we can to a clearing were there seemed to be a small family preparing their afternoon meal. The young men in usual fashion had taken to observing from their hammock but in seeing two westerners leaped to their feet and in Vietnamese started discussing who was taking the beautiful blonde lady on their motorbike to the temples. It was quite amusing to watch the speed at which the young men moved from the hammock to the bikes, I could have counted this time in seconds. I believe I have found a new Olympic sport.

After travelling by motorbike only yesterday in Hoi An it was great to ride with someone who knew where we were going. The track was bumpy enough to knock your teeth together, but our skilled rider made the short journey feel like you could have been on a freeway in Europe. We past pagodas on paddocks with cows grazing at the base and through fields if green tipped rice to the sealed road that then lead us the Emperors Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace was a country escape for the royals from the Citadel. The gates once again surrounded by small markets selling a myriad of knickknacks. Surrounded by in impenetrable wall the Summer Palace locked out the troubles of the world and in its serene and tranquil gardens we strolled trying to contemplate what it would have been like to live the life of the kings and queens who once walked these now well worn paths. Sadly we only had an hour to look over man-made lakes and statues but time here will not be forgotten.

I feel a little sad as I know that tourism will help Vietnam heal from its recent past, but as I leave the Palace I look around as the tour coaches line the side of the road, spewing out the white sand-shoe tourist that sees everything from 5 star hotels and wonder if mass tourism is really the answer. How long can these ancient buildings last with millions of tourists’ marching over them?

Our ever eager motorbike guides are waiting for us and Elena’s driver had one more chance to chat her up before she was lost to him forever as we departed down river once again in the setting sun.