Day 10 - Hue | Main | Day 12 - Hue
The Citadel
We got up a bit late and waited out the first down pour of rain, then jumped on our rented bicycles again with a new found confidence headed off to the citadel, the guide books had said allow a couple of hours but after looking at the size of the place we had allowed most of the day and it was a good thing we did - the place is huge. We decided to hire a guide to take us around the first part through the various palaces of the royal court, Hue was the capital of Viet Nam for about 150 years, in that time they had 15 Emperors each of whom held rule over the country with a collection of Mandarins. It is quite a fascinating history, especially when you realise that this is relatively recent history (1700's-1945) and that the French ruled Viet Nam for much of that time.
We wandered around the temples, in the purple forbidden city (home to the monarch and his 500 concubines, and his mother - no other men were permitted!), we were amazed at how much has been destroyed both by battle (the french Indochine Wars, and the 'American' War) but also because the government originally decreed the site to be not of value as it reflected the feudal lords of the past.
After traipsing over every inch of the Citadel's inner sanctum, we returned to the nice man who was looking after our bikes for 10,000 VND and we cycled back to La ReSidence exhausted and starving - after waiting for lunch at about 4pm we went to the Hotel Spa for a Swedish Massage - an hour of relaxation before the “Party”.
New Year's Eve
To understand the experience of NYE in Hue you need to get a picture of the hotel we are staying in - think of a grand deco style similar say to the Hydro Majestic in the Blue Mountains, it has been renovated impeccably with no expense spared, beautiful gardens an enormous swimming pool big rooms and suites looking over to the perfume river and the Citadel, but the Vietnamese seem to be challenged in getting it quite right, so everything is a bit rough - the service is very keen to be good but actually quite intrusive and often chaotic - its all done in good humor and that is how New Year's Eve went. So we started with champagne in the foyer over looking the beautifully lit gardens and we then went through to the dinning room which was laid out to support a buffet to suit every nationality, what ever they eat, the entertainment was a duet from the Philippines an incredibly dodgy combo called Soul Sensation, who were interspersed with a fashion parade and one of the waiters breakdancing! Fireworks were banned in Vietnam a few years ago so there was none of that. We shared our table with a Finnish couple and their 6 year old son, an older French couple and some Australians (well Melbournians who have migrated to Whale beach). The company was great and it was a really enjoyable night - I have a video of one of the hotel guests singing a duet with the Soul Sensations that you really need to see.
Posted by crispin at December 31, 2007 02:16 AM