Hue Day 1: Citadel, hidden city and royal reasturants

After a lovely breakfast (it's a small buffet, there were pastries, I was happy) we headed out towards to citadel and hidden city. The citadel is in the other side of the river to us so it was about half an hours walk from the hotel. It appears very imposing initially with the large tower and flag, large concrete/brick walls appear black with age and pollution. Inside you're limited with access to the buildings within the first walls, they are still impressive and there is a large assembly area just inside. It made me think of medeval castles in England with the moat, small bridges and high walls. From there you enter into the hidden city (after buying a ticket), think forbidden city in Beijing style and then add a Vietnamese twist. There were halls and rooms everywhere, all red and yellow with ornate carvings and gardens. 

There was information about how the horse symbolism morphed into a dragon horse, which you see on many of the roofs and carvings. It's a mix of: horse, dragon, unicorn and goat (?) and I think it acts a sort of guardian and appeasement to the weather dragon. The main reason that the architecture is so similar to the Chinese forbidden city is that the emperor was ruling in his own right and it was recognised by China as such. Hence he could take the title emperor and build in the same designs. 

After seeing all of the Confucian scholar record and wandering through painted halls I continued through and saw some people who had paid to dress in royal styled clothing and pose for pictures. It was the same style as other traditional clothing I had seen only in red and yellow with heavier embroidery and richer fabrics. I wandered through and found a garden with some lovely pagodas around nicely manicured topiary (they had made some of the hedges into turtles). This was all infront if a raised stone platform that had stair access; behind the garden was one of the inner walls then a small road and moat before an exit gate. I liked this bit around one of the pagodas there were a flock of swallows that were skimming over the grass picking up insects; as I walked past they would skim by me to grab any that I had disturbed. Reminded me of the park at home where the same thing would happen.

From there I explored the smaller temples, tombs and buildings of the inner or purple city. Most of these were built for the wives, concubines and the queen mother, some were smaller shrines for worship other were game rooms for enjoyment as well as many a pond - some with well trained fish - around them. There was a second garden that I found, this one bigger and housing more gardening styles. Many bonsai and smaller pagodas for sitting and relaxing. Unfortunately my camera had died quiet early on so i didn't get any pictures inside the hidden city. I would come back though and spend a day there just painting and sketching different scenes, just as I would in HoiAn.

When we had both finished our wanderings we found each other near the external entrance and headed out to find some lunch. We stopped at a street place nearby that is fairly famous thanks to lonely planet. They say the owner is deaf and uses basic sign language for your order, but I think it's more "I'm hard of hearing and I don't speak English, so I will communicate with you the best I can" either way the fresh beef rolls were good and well priced. We then continued to wander towards the main markets (wholesale again) nicola got some scarfs and we split half a kilo of mangasteins as snacks. We then headed back to the hotel via a corner store where I got an icecream and nicola got some credit and snacks. Our hotel had DVDs free to watch so we had a look and selected two before heading up. We watched iron man before getting ready for dinner, we were going to a reasturant that is run by a princess of a small country. Some of the food is served in the shape of other animals as well as royal style foods. 

Spring roll peacock, body was a hollowed out pineapple with carrot accents. 

Tomato doves with the cooked duck 

It was a good meal, you can order a banquet or individual dishes. We got the spring rolls, royal duck and steamed fish and lemongrass. The setting is lovely too, it's wasn't a busy night when we went although we were warned that is can get very busy so it is best to book just incase.