Hue

From Hoi An we took a daytime train for the two and a half hour journey north to Hue. After enjoying the views along the coast we arrived in Hue mid-afternoon on Friday 1st November and were met by a driver from the hotel. This was something we have now learnt – when you arrive in a new place it is so much easier if you have pre-arranged to be collected and taken straight to your hotel as it saves a lot of hassle and haggling with taxi or tuktuk drivers! It was only a fifteen minute drive from the train station to our hotel, which was located in the backpacker area of the city. After checking in and dropping our bags in our room we set off in search of food for lunch, finding a nice Indian restaurant not far from our hotel (which we had discovered in earlier TripAdvisor research). We arrived back at our hotel at 1900 and decided to treat ourselves to an early night.

The front of Hue Imperial Citadel

The bed in our hotel was very comfy (possibly the comfiest hotel bed of the trip so far) and this aided us not waking up until 0800. We had considered joining a tour of the many sights in and around the city but, after discussing our thoughts with the hotel staff, decided to do our own tour instead. The organised tours visit many sights, which allows only a short amount of time at each one. We weren’t particularly interested in visiting all of the sights on the tour, so our own tour would make better use of our time. It took just over half an hour to walk from our hotel to the citadel, but as we walked towards the entrance we were able to really appreciate its size. We spent over two hours exploring the citadel – the organised tour would have only permitted 40 minutes – taking in the extravagant Thai Hoa Palace, the The Mieu temple, the Forbidden Purple City and saw hedges trimmed into the shape of turtles! We stopped for lunch on the walk back to the hotel and spent the afternoon researching onward trains to Hanoi and hotels for when we get there. By 1700 we were happy with our research for Hanoi and decided to take a walk around the touristy streets on Hue before going to a restaurant called Confetti for dinner. We were back in the hotel two and a half hours after setting out, and spent the evening updating the blog and writing our journals.

The Mieu temple inside Hue citadel

On Sunday morning we took a boat trip along the river to the Thien My Pagoda. We had a tourist boat to ourselves for the 45 minute trip upstream and we enjoyed taking in the sights around us – local fisherman precariously balanced on the back of their little dugout boats and the barges heavily laden with gravel going downstream. The pagoda is 21 metres tall and you could see it in the distance as you got closer and closer. You also couldn’t fail to miss all of the tourist boats moored up on the riverbank in front of it! After a wander around the pagoda and the other buildings there we boarded our boat and travelled back downstream to our hotel. We then walked to a little French bakery called La Boulangerie Francaise and enjoyed our first real lunch since arriving in South East Asia – Lindsay had a quiche and I had a baguette sandwich! After lunch we walked back across the river to the big market and then headed back to the hotel. The remainder of the afternoon was spent researching what to do for the rest of our time in Vietnam and then we returned to Confetti for dinner.

Thien Mu Pagoda

Monday was another filler day as we waited for our train to Hanoi, which wasn’t due to leave Hue until 1430. In the morning we returned to the French bakery to get some food for lunch and dinner on the train and the rest of the morning was spent packing and getting ready to move on, again! At 1345 we piled into a taxi to the train station as we set off for our next destination – Hanoi.

Photos from Hue can be viewed below or at http://photos.andywicks.com/Hue

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