Hue Day 2: Perfume River tour then HaNoi

[16/02/14]

Today was an early start as we were bing picked up at 8am for the boat tour as well as checking out of the hotel. They were lovely and store out bags and allowed us access to restrooms to shower if we wanted to, our flight was at 9:15pm so we had some time to spare. Once everything was sorted we headed out and followed our guide to the boat and then waited for the rest of the people to be collected and then loaded onto the boat. Once it was eventually full we headed down the river to go to the first stop An Hiên Garden house. This was just a Brit stop to show and explain the common architecture and reasoning behind the house layouts according to the 5 element theory (we call it Feng Shui, which technically isn't correct but meh). It did make some of the layouts make sense from the day before but the house was nothing special, there were some nice carvings though.

We then headed to the Thien Mu Pagoda, this is a Buddhist pagoda with about 70 resident monks. Not many locals come here to pray/meditate as with the culture change Buddhism became a very personal spirituality. The pagoda was nice, after some tall steps there was a large frontal courtyard with a tall engraved tower and some smaller towers with carvings, bells and tablets inside. From there you headed into the main complex from one of three doorways, the temple itself was really nice with the happy Buddha actually looking happy and the three Buddha statues behind him. There were some lovely gardens behind with more stone towers. We didn't have much time but what I did get to explore was nice.

We then headed to the Hon Chen temple, this is a small temple dedicated to the 'sacred mother of Vietnam'. It's a psychological nationalistic thing, strength in unity lessons. Granted it worked against genghis khan, so it can't be too bad. The temple was small but nice, the amount of insence was headache inducing though, there was a small Confucian temple next to it that was free if you didn't want to see the other temple. We then had a very basic lunch on the boat, rice, vege and a curried tofu as protein; they offered you extra food at a higher price if you wanted. From what I saw of the extra food, not worth it. Didn't get it.

We then headed to the tombs where we left the boat and changed to a bus. Minh Mang tomb was nice but not very spectacular, there were some lovely carvings and some nice mosaics but nothing amazing and eye catching. The size of the place though was the key, you go through multiple gates over multiple staircases to end up at the burial area. Yeah area, no one actually knows where the body is buried, everyone who dealt with it when it was interned was killed, ancient egyptian style. The radius of the area is roughly 43km so the area to look for it is huge and it was brought in underground so it'd be hard to find even if you got access to survey the site. 

Khai Dinh tomb was spectacular, it's got 127 steps to the very top and amazing carvings of dragons all over the stairs and pillars. The main tomb building is just covered in carvings my photos just don't do it justice. Inside the building is even more spectacular; the entire building is just covered in mosaics and the ceiling is painted with dragons writhing in clouds. In the middle of all of that is the tomb with a life size golden statue of the Emperor, I took a photo then realised that there was a 'no photo' sign; infront of where about 5 people were taking both flash photography (which was a terrible idea) and using various tablets. There was a small museum aspect with some household bits and bobs from the royal palace along with photographs. 

Tu Duc tomb was more recent and plainer, minimal carvings and mosaics. It's also called the tomb of philosophy as he used it as an escape (they tended to live in the complexes if finished before they died) from court happenings. I did notice some graffiti on the tomb itself at this site, it wasn't in a very good state of repair/restoration. There were however monkeys on the man made island as well as small steps and possibly a shrine, we weren't able to go over so it was from afar that I guessed. We got back pretty late so we rested and freshened up at the hotel, they gave us water and tea before we went to a local place and tried the local specials (which all include prawns, if you're vego and you don't eat seafood you're kinda screwed for many if the signature dishes) of Banh Beo (rice paste with dried prawn, shallots and a crisp piece of crackling served with soy sauce and Banh Khoai which is similar but steamed with pork in banana leaves. The lady who served us did us a deal with giving us half of each full meal so we could try them all. It wasn't very filling so we ducked into a corner store and grabbed a snack while we finished waiting for the transfer to arrive. We then flew to HaNoi and was met by a driver to check in at our hostel, same place we were when I started.

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. 

HoiAn > Hue

After a decent sleep-in (ie 8am) we checked out of our hotel and got a car to DaNang train station. Where we were initially and hour early and the train then decided to be an hour and twenty minutes late, bare in mind that this is a three hour train ride we're talking about. So instead of getting to Hue at 3pm we got here at 4:30pm, and the weather had worsened to a drizzle. 

The train ride was lovely, if a little long. There were moments where the view just opened up and we were sidling along coastline looking out onto the ocean wih either a small inlet, beach or just straight forest all around. It was amazing at times just watching the view open up and seeing the ocean or seeing small villages or even decorated tombs along the side. 

The hotel we're staying in is called the Orchid Hotel, it's priced at about 3 stars but the service we've received has been closer to 5. They had welcome drinks and snacks for us and they replaced the computer tower in the room the moment we asked as the other wouldn't turn on. Oh and I forgot to mention it has a bath, which is just a wonderful thing at this stage of the trip.

We freshened up and headed out to meet one of Nicola's friends from high school, she's traveling with her boyfriend on a tour going the opposite direction to us. We had dinner at a place called Le's Garden, it's tacky and had terrible service. Their western menu was majorly overpriced, some of the burgers came out cold, one wasn't completely cooked (beef, granted but not ideal). I ordered from the Vietnamese menu and I got a decent serving size but it was nothing special. I wouldn't recommend it unless desperate. We then headed to a bar called Brown Eyes, this place is surprisingly just up the street and a busy hub of activity. The music was great, props to the dj he did a great job while we were there. There was a pool table with about three games over the few hours we were there. It was very loud but it was nice to dance for a bit. We then headed back aired out our coats (cause I love my new coat smelling like tobacoo). It was actually fairly cold tonight, I wore leggings under my pants. But my bed is comfy so I will finish here and sleep for tomorrow.