Hue

We had a fairly easy day today, about a half day city tour around Hue, then we were on our own.  The breakfast here was good, an improvement over Sapa for sure.  Our pickup was right on time, again a guide with a separate driver, this time in a car rather than the twelve seater bus that the two of us used in Sapa.
We started with the Imperial Citadel, a large walled area (the outer wall surrounds several square kilometers), that was the Royal residence for the last dynasty, the Nguyen Dynasty that ruled Vietnam from 1802 - 1945, albeit with French interference.  It was quite interesting to hear the stories of the Kings ( there were 13 or14 of them), one was gay, one was sterile due to childhood chicken pox, two of them lasted weeks before they were poisoned, and so on.

 

Entrance to the Inner Citadel, the center door is for the King only

 

Walking between the womens area and the King mothers residence

The only people allowed inside the inner walls were the king, his concubines, and his castrated male servants.  One of the kings had over 100 wives.  There were quite a few groups of schoolchildren there, mostly high school age.  The young girls were all dressed up in their traditional dresses.

School girls at the Citadel

Next we went to the Thien Mu pagoda, a Buddist site, where potential young monks can spend a couple of years deciding if this is their destiny, however when they turn 18, they still have to do their two years of military service.

The Thien Mu pagoda

From the pagoda, we got onto a dragon boat and chugged back up the Perfume river, where our driver met us again.  The boat part is a bit on the touristy side....

 

Our dragon boat

 

Sitting on the bow

Before a late lunch we made one more stop at the Khai Dinh tomb, I think he was the fourth king, who gave up his throne for reasons I don't remember, but built himself a lavish retreat where he lived out his years and was buried on the grounds.  However, the site of his tomb is not his actual gravesite, that was a secret spot, somewhere on the grounds, to ensure that his treasures that were buried with him, would not be removed.  The workers who knew the secret were all poisoned, but their families were richly rewarded.

A part of the Khai Dinh tomb

We were taken to lunch at a nice restaurant that was still inside the outer walls of the Citadel.  It was a prepared menu, but quite good.  Nice presentation with the spring rolls appitizer.

Spring rolls at lunch

We had a lazy last half of the afternoon, a little napping, then a happy hour beer at one of the many streetside eating/drinking places.  For supper we went to an Italian place that I had read about on trip advisor, that turned out to be next door to the hotel.  We debated between the Vietnamese hot pot and their highly regarded pizza, and ended up with the pizza.  A small appy of brussetta, a pizza, a large beer, and a glass of wine for $7.  Sure cannot complain about food prices or quality here.  Someone at the restaurant saw my Cameco Tshirt and said something about yea riders.  Turns out they are from Saskatoon and have a very similar itinerary to us, at least the first two weeks.  They are having a great time too, but sort of winging it with trains and $20 hotel rooms.

Tomorrow we drive to Hoi An, where we'll be staying for several days.  This is where I was predicting would be the highlight of our trip, but the bar is set pretty high.  The weather forecast continues to be fantastic, high twenties and sunshine.