Pronounced "whey," Hue was formally the capital of Vietnam. After traveling by car for about 3 hours from Hoi An to Hue, we only had the afternoon to explore the city and history of the cultural city.
Our guide came to pick us up at the hotel and took us to Khai Dinh's tomb, one of 13 emperors from the Nguyen dynasty from 1802 until the end of their reign in 1945. It is the most intricate of the 13 tombs, rather funny considering he was a "puppet king" as the French controlled the country at the time of his reign.
Intricate mosaic work - there is an entire room full of mosaic tiles, unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures.
Our next stop was the Citadel and the Imperial City, the city's main attraction. Most of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1945 and during the Vietnam War in 1968, sadly not much is left standing.
The Citadel:
Fish pond at the entrance of the Imperial Palace - one of the tour guides brought some food and the fish went crazy:
Imperial City:
Our next stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda which also serves as a monestary. On display is the famous Austin car monk Thich Quang Duc used to drive himself to Saigon before setting himself on fire to protest against the president's policies in 1963:
The famous picture:
We took a boat ride down the Perfume River, went back to the hotel to freshen up, had dinner and called it a night.
5 comments:
I am impressed you saw the burning monk car.
So jealousE of your trip. Sounds like you are having a blast. :)
i am so living vicariously through you.
(i totally suck at commenting on your blog, but i HAVE been reading!)
Holy crap, that monk is on fire. That is some serious dedication. I'm so clueless about this stuff. Thank you for filling my brain with things besides crap.
Why wouldn't they let you take pictures of the mosaic work? That stinks.
Your posts are imsamely educatiomal, evem for am igmoramus like me.
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