First Day in Hué

Written by Ellen:

First Day in Hué

Our hotel sent a minivan to the train station for us. We crowded in to watch the scenes of the much calmer town of Hué. Everyone was hecka tired due to accumulated sleep deprivation and REALLY tiny beds on the sleeper train. The minivan sent was slightly too small for all 12 of us with our luggage, but we chose to crowd even though Frédéric was offered a ride on the back of a motorbike (personally I can’t see why he turned it down). Upon arrival to the Binh Minh Sunrise hotel, we hurried off to our respective showers (which was a good thing since the train didn’t have any) before rushing downstairs for a late breakfast. Then it was off to the Hué citadel, passing tantalizing swan boats on the way (for some reason Jim and Anne still haven’t let us ride them).

The citadel was gorgeous. Its’ construction was started in 1804 by Emporer Gia Long on a site chosen by his geomancers. We entered, by the gate that was once “reserved” for women, to see two of the cutest elephants in the world, which we could have ridden for like five dollars if the teachers had let us, but they didn’t which is okay since there was probably some unethical treatment of elephants going on there. The buildings themselves were absolutely stunning. Hué is a place where many past emperors lived. In the center of the citadel was the Forbidden Purple City, a place where only the emperor and his eunuchs and concubines could enter (for some reason we were let in too). During various offensives and occupations during the Vietnam War, Hué’s citadel was mostly destroyed and the various buildings that were in the process of being rebuilt contrasted sharply with the burnt walls and overgrown gardens of the areas that had yet to be redone.

Next we visited a temple where emperors went to honor their predecessors. That was also quite charming, although the pictures of child rulers were a little bit depressing. We didn’t stay for very long there because everyone was hungry, so we ate lunch before heading back to the hotel. We stayed there until dinner, writing journal entries, finishing blogs and looking over our pictures. Then we left Anne behind (she wasn’t feeling well) and went to a nice restaurant with live music. That was good except we sat near some really really really noisy Germans that would raise their voices whenever the music got even a little loud. Still good, but could have been much better.