SOUTHEAST ASIA 2024—FEBRUARY 22-23, HOI AN TO HUE

 

FEBRUARY 22

The train from Hoi An to Hue hugs the serpentine coast where the landscape is covered in a thick carpet of what looked to me like kudzu.  The track is so curvy, I could see the last car of the train when I looked out the window of our compartment.

We arrived at the Hue train station late in the afternoon and grabbed a cab to the Leranda Homestay (no website; we booked through booking.com).  Homestays, as the name would suggest, are owner-occupied guest accommodations.  At Leranda the owners, an architect and his wife, live in this ancestral home of his grandfather with their young daughter and two cats.  Access to the building is via a covered, narrow alley 50 meters off a main street, so the rooms are at a remove from the urban hustle and the atmosphere is very peaceful.  The compound is oriented around a koi pond with covered areas where you can relax in inviting hammocks or comfortable chairs.  

After getting settled in our room, we renewed our quest to find the coolest cocktail bar in Hue before having dinner at Madame Thu's, recommended by our homestay host.  The bar below was only a couple of blocks from our homestay and had an upstairs veranda ideal for people watching.

After finishing our drinks, we discovered that there was an hour wait at Madame Thu's, so what to do?  Why not try out another cocktail bar?!  This place proved you just can't have too much gold, fake antiques, or clunky cut crystal.  Note the table to the rear, right hand side made of crushed beer and soft drink cans.

An after dinner walk confimed that Hue has a distinctly Vegas vibe where disco is by no means dead.

 

FEBRUARY 23

Typical of homestays, our room came with breakfast.  On our first morning we were served made to order Bo Bun Hue, the classic beef noodle soup for which Hue is famous.

Our tourist goal for the day was the Citadel and its Imperial City, a citadel within a citadel, located on the north bank of the Perfume River.  A little historical background may be in order here.

Built between 1804 and 1833, the Citadel served as the capital of Vietnam until 1945, when Bao Dai, the last emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, abdicated in Hue at the end of the Second World War.  Sensing an opportunity created by the leadership vacuum, the French tried to reassert dominion over their former colony, precipitating the nine-year French Indochine War.  In 1947, the communist Viet Minh (as in Ho Chi Minh) resistance forces seized the Citadel and the French counterattacked; the ensuing six-week battle caused extensive damage to the Citadel.  

In 1954, having lost to the Viet Minh, the French signed the Geneva Accords, dividing the country into North and South Vietnam along the 17th Parallel not far to the north of Hue, and paving the way for the French to leave.  In 1954, Hanoi became the capital of the North and Saigon became the capital of the South. 

Upon the withdrawal of the French at the height of the Cold War, the US, fearing a communist "domino effect" in Southeast Asia, began a covert campaign to support ARVN, the army of the Republic of Vietnam in the South.  Covert eventually became overt and the Citadel suffered massive bombing damage in the 1968 Tet Offensive.  Of the original 160 structures, only ten remain.  The Citadel was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, and the site is undergoing restoration.

The Citadel is really, really big.  Its area is about two square miles.  It is circumscribed by a ten-kilometer, two-meter-thick fortified perimeter wall, a moat, and is accessed by 13 gates, two of which span waterways.  Within the Citadel is the Imperial City, surrounded by two and a half kilometers of walls and another moat.  And within the Imperial City is the Forbidden Purple City, modeled on the Chinese Forbidden City, accessible only to the royal family and its servants.  

To better grasp the enormity of the site and to understand why a guide is absolutely essential, (we booked a half-day, small group tour through Guru), here is an aerial photograph of the complex and a model of the Imperial City.  For an excellent description of the site, here is a link to Vinpearl.

 

The Flag Tower sits at the outer perimeter bastions.

We met our guide and small group inside the bastions at the Ngo Mon Gate (photo from Vinpearl). 

Once through the gate were temples, more gates, bonsai gardens, pleasure pavilions, a theater, and palaces.

The temple and palace interiors were as remarkable as their exteriors.

 

Also on display were clothes and shoes worn by Bao Dai, the last emperor, and his queen Nam Phuong.

 

Interspersed among the gardens and palaces of the Citadel were the Instagram moments--people posing in native costumes taking photos of each other.  Apparently you can rent the traditional women's ao dai, complete with hats, at the Citadel.  Bring your own shoes, though!

 

 

Our half-day tour of the Imperial City wasn't nearly long enough, and I decided to return the following afternoon on my own.

I'll leave you with a look at a street fair we stumbled on that evening, 

where a woman was making coconut ice cream sundaes with fresh tropical fruit.  

By the way, these little plastic stools are as ubiquitous in Vietnam as the toilet paper-Kleenex-napkins.  It's just the way it is.  No ifs, ands, or butts.

Keep it real!

Marilyn