Hue 31st August – 2nd September

I promise that this is the last post for my Hoi An / Hue trip!





This is another favorite photo- it was very beautiful and peaceful walking through this area on the Tuesday morning

The lotus ponds are beautiful but most of the flowers are picked while they are still in bud.
















Nuns out for a morning bike ride ....

... and monks collecting alms

If you are in the market for a unique wedding gown I can make arrangements for you!

The moat outside the citadel in the evening light was beautiful but it was pretty scungy when seen in full daylight






One of the footpath cafes where we had beautiful food




Yum! I have discovered that I like quails eggs











Adeline, Ann, Pat Nugyen's aunt and uncle who are artists (oops don't remember their names!) and Nugyen.

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These are the models made by the uncle for the festival - I found the models, made from beer cans really interesting - they include details for all of the inside structures

The silk painting bought by Ann - her work is very popular and sells quickly but I am hoping that I might get a chance to buy one some time too

One of the citadel gates - there is one on each side. Each had designated people who could use it. This one was for the scholars.

I could have gone for a ride on this poor old elephant but decided not to burden her life any further





This is the arts school - a good example of many of the older public buildings that are still in use. Modern ones are much grander.






I have included pictures of some of the food that this area is famous for.
Dong, our driver, counting the "floating ferns" a favorite delicacy





This was a fish paste and rice dish





These ones were definitely in the "interesting" food category. The stiff gluey rice paste encased a whole shrimp complete with shell. I just cannot get used to eating food that has things like shells in it.






The Perfume River. The woman above has collected little snails. Nguyen says they are a delicacy but that I should not eat them because they make many people sick when they first try them!

This was one of many interesting sculptues that line the river






"Mr Whippy" on the river








Th Independance Day boat race

Khai Dinh Tomb

Tu Duc Tomb

































Pat testing out the gongs - they have a beautiful sound

Hue – 31st August – 2nd September

Hue proved to be a really interesting city. It is the education, literacy and arts capital of Viet Nam. We arrived late on Sunday and left midmorning on Tuesday so I did not have near enough time to explore it fully – hopefully I will have an opportunity to return but there are so many other places I want to see in Viet Nam that it might not happen.

Our hotel was located within the outer square of the citadel which is a fortress with three concentric walls and two sizeable moats. The outer wall, roughly square in shape is 10km long and the central one 2.5km. I anticipated that our hotel would be in a historic area but in fact, other than the walls and narrow entry gate, it looked similar to other Vietnamese towns. We were all keen to see more so, after dumping our bags, we went for a twilight stroll around the outside of the middle wall. The walls, which are 8 meters high and 20 meters thick, were originally built of earth and were later reinforced with stone and bricks, some of which were recycled from Cham ruins. It looks ancient but is in fact only about 200 years old. It was almost completely ruined during the French and the American wars but a significant proportion of it has been rebuilt and more work is underway. As we walked around, between the wall and a moat, we were keen to see what was inside the walls and persuaded the guards on one of the elaborate gates to let us have a short look.

After sampling some of the justifiably famous Hue cuisine for dinner at a roadside stall we went visiting. Nugyen comes from a really interesting family – his parents who were “hippies” lived in this area and were involved in the counterculture movement and the arts as young people. He has three uncles still living here. They generously ensured that we had an interesting time in Hue. We were given the status of a “visiting international arts group” and issued with a letter that gave us free entry into most of the sights. One of the uncles is involved in organizing the biannual Hue festival. He is very keen to have performance or visual artists from New Zealand at the next festival in 2010 so if any of you wonderfully creative people have ideas let me know!

Another uncle and aunt are both artists and lecturers in the arts. We spent an enjoyable evening with them. I really liked a silk painting done by the aunt that Ann ended up buying. I also enjoyed a conversation with the uncle who is very interested in developing children’s creativity. He had a wonderful collection of pictures of children’s art work on his computer. I could have talked to him (through Nugyen) for ages but the others were bored silly with the conversation. He also showed us models of a phoenix and a dragon that he had created for the 2008 festival. The next day we saw them in the citadel where they have been stored.

On Monday morning we got up early and visited the inner citadel for a short while before shouting ourselves to a western breakfast buffet. We then went to see two of the seven tombs built by kings in the Nguyen dynasty in the hills alongside the Perfume River (Song Huong). They were each built by the kings while they were still living. These men certainly wanted to ensure that their lives were commemorated! The first, Tu Duc was started in 1864 and took a workforce of 3000 men three years to complete. There are a number of buildings and ruins set in park like surroundings. I was particularly taken with the pavilions set beside lotus ponds. They were just like the one featured in the Vietnamese movie Three Seasons that some of you have seen. It was easy to imagine the king, who used this as a retreat for poetry writing, entertaining his many concubines here.

The second tomb that we visited, Khai Dinh, was finished in 1931. Built of reinforced concrete that has blackened with age it is a curious mixture of Vietnamese and western styles. I particularly liked the external staircases which have long dragon banisters and the courtyard with rows of stone mandarins, horses and elephants. Almost every surface of the interior is ornately decorated with colorful mosaics – amazing craftsmanship but completely over-the-top!

After a couple more brief stops we returned to Hue for lunch in a very modest looking little establishment. We were treated to four courses, each consisted of small servings of local delicacies, some of which were treats and some of which could best be described as “interesting”. Some of our party were more than ready for an afternoon nap, but conscious of the short time we had in the city, I decided to hire a bike so I could look around more. Adeline and Pat joined me and we enjoyed seeing sights along the river as well as a ride through one of the extensive sculpture parks. The sculptures, most of which are contemporary, warranted much more time but we needed to return for our tour of the citadel so it was really only a cursory look. Unfortunately we did not get to any of the art galleries – next time!!

I ended up not appreciating the citadel as much as I had anticipated. I was suffering somewhat from the Asian equivalent of the ABC (Another Bloody Cathedral) tour syndrome and the heat inside the inner citadel walls was pretty intense. I wandered about, sometimes on my own and sometimes with Ann and Nugyen, in a fairly desultory manner for a couple of hours and ended up not seeing everything but it was interesting.

I rose early on the Tuesday morning, which was Rob’s birthday, and took myself off for a long walk around the backstreets and lake areas of the citadel. It was a strange time – my grief was powerfully with me but I was in a beautiful and interesting place filled with warm and welcoming people. I particularly enjoyed passing the time with some old ladies who were resting after their morning exercises. They asked me many questions, only some of which I could understand, and laughed uproariously at my pathetic attempts to speak Vietnamese. They wanted me to take photographs of them but sat looking dour while I did so. I have noticed that this is often the case – people here who have been laughing and joking often seem to put on a very serious expression when they are being photographed.

I continued in my wanderings and had lovely opportunities to photograph people working in the lakes amongst the lotus, water lilies and edible water plants. I am really pleased with one of these images.

When I joined the others for breakfast we heard that there was an Independence Day boat race on the river so we went to watch it for awhile. The race, was in modern “dragon boats” and only moderately interesting but the crowd was fascinating. Many of the people who live and work on the river had bought their little old boats along to watch the event. A man selling ice-creams from an old chilly bin a little wooden canoe gave me a good chuckle. The Vietnamese equivalent of Mr Whippy he paddled about from boat to boat, rolling cone ice-creams which he topped with nuts, condensed milk and strawberry topping. Not long after this we started our long journey home. With at least eight hours of driving ahead of us we had few stops but I did take the opportunity to purchase a traditional bronze gong when we stopped for lunch in a village where they are made. I will hang it up outside when I return home where it will commemorate my survival of another milestone on my inner journey.