After our time in Northern Vietnam, the next stop for Jen and I was Hue. According to Lonely Planet, “Hue, which was the political capital of Vietnam from 1802 to 1945, is one of the country’s cultural, religious, and educational centers”. In other words, the town is filled with pagodas and tombs. Being that Hue is on the central coast of Vietnam, getting there turned out to be an exhausting experience which included 2 overnight trains in 3 days. The first train took us from Sapa to Hanoi, where we arrived at 4 in the morning. Because we had already spent 4 days in Hanoi, we booked a train leaving later on that night to complete the journey to Hue. Usually, having 11 hours to “kill” in a foreign city is an opportunity that Jen and I use to observe real life and to experience new things. Exhausted as we were, this time it meant hanging out in the mall, drinking a bunch of coffee, and catching the new Star Trek movie; which was amazing by the way (if you don’t believe me, just ask Jen).
Arriving in Hue early the next morning, Jen and I did something that we both said we would never do. Having traveled in Asia for a while now, it is inevitable that the two of us have become quite weary and skeptical of the numerous taxi drivers and guesthouse employees who are there to greet you the minute you exit a train, bus or airport. We’ve both said that, out of principle (i.e. so as not to encourage this bombardment), we would never go with the first person who approached us. This was the person who would be all up in your face before you even had time to put your pack on. In Hue, most likely because of the sleep deprivation, we hesitantly went with the first guesthouse. In this case, it all worked out.
The Binh Duong 2 hotel turned out to be one of the better accommodations that we’ve had in Vietnam. For only $15 USD per night, we had a clean, large room equipped with a refrigerator, satellite TV, air conditioning, free internet, balcony, and even a small sitting area. In fact this was the first guesthouse we’ve stayed in that offered room service. While this may not sound like the luxury that I’m trying to get across, please keep in mind that the longer we travel, the easier we are to please. After spending the first day recharging our batteries and taking advantage of the air-con in our room, we figured that the best and cheapest way to see the city’s many sites was to join a tour the following morning.
Hoping aboard a greyhound-sized bus, the tour started off at the Citadel (former imperial city), followed by stops at a traditional style Hue home, the “Heavenly Lady Pagoda”, and various tombs of former emperors (namely, if I remember correctly, the second, twelfth, and fourth emperors), and culminated with a “dragon boat” ride down the river. With all the great tours and guides we’ve had in the past 4 months, our luck was bound to run out sometime. It did in Hue. It’s not that the tour was necessarily bad but relatively speaking, it’s probably the worst tour we’ve been on so far. The sights themselves were generally nice with the tomb of the 14th Emperor, the traditional house, and the Heavenly Lady Pagoda sticking out in my mind. Perhaps it’s because Jen and I are not used to tours that size that we didn’t have best of times. At every stop, we were a group of 20 plus joining 2 or 3 more groups of equal size from other companies, and we were herded in and out of the sights. It felt like we were rushed at every stop and our time was so regimented. Our guide actually got mad at us for being a few minutes late getting back to the bus after one particular stop.
Actually the one thing that will stick out in my mind about the Hue tour is an incident that occurred at the second last stop of the day. First let me give you some background information to make myself look a little better. For those of you who have not traveled to Vietnam before, the people here are, how would I say . . . , a bit aggressive. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve met some really nice people here, but in general the Vietnamese are pretty aggressive. On this particular tour we were responsible for purchasing our own tickets to enter the sights and without fail, just as I was about to purchase our tickets, the same Vietnamese woman would simply push her way in and jump ahead of me. I mean literally, she would shoulder me out of the way to buy herself an extra minute at the sights. For almost the entire day, I was the bigger person and I conceded my position in line. Well, near the end of the day, I’d had enough. Oh, I let her push her way in but the minute she tried to leave the line, I timed a perfect shoulder check that rocked her against the ticket booth. If only you could have seen the smile on my face as I told Jen of my accomplishment. I do feel a tiny bit bad, but I must admit that as I write this paragraph there is a silly grin on my face.
Anyways, after having seen most of the sights of Hue in a day, we decided that it was time to get moving again so the following day we boarded the bus and made our way to Hoi An.
For photos of Hue, go to http://gallery.me.com/adamschen
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