Historical Hue

(This first part is from Keith:)

Before leaving Hanoi we went and visited Ho Chi Min! No, he's not still alive, but his body was embalmed and he rests under tight security in the mausoleum. It would be an understatement to say he is a national hero. The mausoleum is open for about 6 hrs, 5 days a week, 10 months of the year. (The other 2 months he takes a trip to Russia for his annual check-up) During opening hours there is a constant stream of people, mostly locals, who pay their respects. It is how I imagine Reagan's funeral was, but this has been happenning for over two deacades!

How does he look, you might ask. Well, dead, I would respond...and well-protected.

He then took a quick tour of the Ho Chi Min museum. It was a good museum in that it had much of his original writings, from the early 1900's, up to his death. Some translated into English for us tourists. You really had to remove the propaganda element that weaves its way through much of the government material to get a good feel for the man. Did we get a good feel for the man? No.

(And now Emily):
We now are in Hue. A surprisingly lovely city, with tons of history. History from long ago, when Emperors ruled and built moat-guarded citadels to ward off the French, and of course the more modern history of the American War (I must be accurate in what it is called, Vietnam has had so many wars, to call what we think of the Vietnam War, the Vietnam War here would be very confusing).

The night train, hard sleeper was great! Never thought I'd be saying those words, but the term 'hard sleeper' is a bit misleading. They do provide you with about one-inch pads which turn out to be quite adequate. The cabins for the hard sleeper have six bunks to a room, so you are a bit crunched for space, but luckily we had the bottom bunks so did not have to climb over people to get to our beds. The bad thing about the bottom bunk is that people feel free to use it as their bench until they are ready to go to bed. One thing we have definitely noticed here is the different opinion regarding personal space. There isn't much consideration for personal space here. People just plop down practically on your lap, without thinking twice. Lines at the train station involve forcing your way to the front. More than once I will stand politely in what I think is a line only to get pushed aside with people crowding to the front. Of course I just smile dumbly because I am sure they have a reason for doing so. Eventually a kind soul takes pity on me and ushers me to the crowded front indicating this is just the way things are done. Even boarding trains, there is no order. People just mash themselves to the doors, frantic to get on as if it is about to take off without them! So different.

So we arrived in Hue yesterday, got settled in and rented some hilarious bikes (that allowed us to fit right in....no mountain bikes here!) and explored the citadel, the local market and some random side streets. Such a fun way to see the city. Even though the citadel and the city of Hue were bombed to oblivion during the Tet Offensive of the American War, it is now again a beautiful city. The citadel is made up of a 10km perimeter which is enclosed by a stone wall and a moat, built by the emperor in 1805.

Here is Keith on his very stylish bike, doing his best to blend in and not get hit. The bridge he is crossing is one of the 8 that cross over the moat and into the citadel. Here he is coming into the citadel. You can see the stone wall behind him that surrounds the citadel.


Within that citadel, is another citadel, or the Emperor's Palace. You have to pay big dong to go in there, so we chose just to cycle around as the exterior was pretty enough. We spent our next day figuring out logistics/plans and waiting for the weather to clear up as we wanted to rent motorbikes again, and we can't seem to escape the mist and fog and light rain (gee, it sounds like Oregon/Washington in the winter!)

The next day the weather was still marginal, but we set out anyway and traveled along a small road that runs in between the ocean and a lagoon. Very beautiful road. On one side of you there are monuments and elaborate gravestones along the entire 50 km stretch honoring loved ones and lush rice paddies and vegetable gardens on your other side. It was a lovely drive. Some of our favorite times and days like these where we can be completely independent and see the quieter side of the cities and the people.

Here is a look at the Perfume River - the river that flows through Hue. I don't know why they call it that. We haven't noticed any distinct smells coming from it (that could be a blessing, really). We were fascinated with how much they loaded up these boats. Keith wondered how many are sitting at the bottom of the river, as he believes, one large wave would take it under.


OK. So now we are actually in Hoi An, about 100 km south of Hue (I started that blog a while ago, and we're just now finishing it). We passed the famous China Beach to get here, and will do a day trip on motorbikes to go and visit it and Danang. We decided to skip a visit to the DMZ as the logistics got the better of us. We arrived only today in Hoi An, and so far it looks like a lovely place. It's 5km from the beach and even though we didn't travel far today, it seems much warmer here. We have a swim planned for tomorrow. Hoi An is also famous for it's tailors. Custom tailoring can be done for a fraction of the cost it would be back home. So we'll check that out too and spend a few days in this relatively low-key place where they have made an attempt to ban touts from the streets!

(And Keith again:)
We wanted to take a one or two day trip north of Hue to see parts of the DMZ. Our plan was to rent motorbikes and make the 300 km trip ourselves, instead of taking a tourist bus. The sites I really wanted to see were the Khe San fire base, Vinh Moc tunnels, and Truong Son National Cemetery. It seems to be against us however, as it drizzled every morning and the best motor bikes we could find had no horn, no speedometer, and bad brakes. (Which we rented for one day anyway, before deciding we were not taking these on a long trip). Why did we want to see the DMZ? For the most part it has all grown up. When we (Americans) pulled out of fire bases, we left nothing and the jungle quickly re-took the area. That is especially the case for Khe San. I guess I wanted to see it, so that I could feel the Vietnam war for myself. I am sorry I missed it, but it will still be there. The war is everwhere here, it is not in any one place. (How is that for rationalizing?)