Friday, February 12, 2010
Hue is pronounced like "way" and lies right in the middle of Vietnam near the coast and is spread along each side of the Perfume river. Hue was the place of a vicious battle during the Tet Offensive in January 1968...it was the only city in the south to be held by the communists for more than a few days. Hue was controlled and occupied by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong for a month and during that time they massacred 1000's of ARVN soldiers, wealthy merchants, government workers, anyone foreign, monks, priests and intellectuals in Hue to remove the "uncooperative elements". There were executions and mass killings...dozens of mass graves were found afterward containing 2800-6000 body's of bound, tortured and in many cases buried alive victims. When the South Vietnamese army was unable to free the city the USA was sent in and in the process they levelled whole neighbourhoods, napalmed the imperial palace, and there was brutal hand to hand fighting. A quote from an American solder was " we had to destroy the city in order to save it".
10 000 people died here...400 South Vietnamese and 150 US marines but the rest, and the majority of the victims, were civilian's.
I took a somewhat painful bus ride from Hoi An to Hue yesterday that ended up being over an hour late...this caused me to miss my free bus station pickup from the hotel and I had to make my own way. No huge deal though as I found a taxi quickly and it only cost a couple bucks. My hotel even upgraded me to a fancy room because they felt bad they missed my bus pickup(even though it totally wasn't there fault). I have really nice room out of it though with a king size bed and a desk with a computer on it! They even have DVD players in each room with a huge DVD library of all the latest movies, all bootlegged of course, and give free fruit and pastries every day :)
BEAUTIFUL AREA AT TU DUC'S TOMB
STONE MANDARIN'S GUARDING
KHAI DINH'S TOMB
JUST THOUGHT THIS GUY HAD A NICE SMILE.
Today I went on a day trip to see the main sights Hue has to offer...most of them UNESCO World Heritage Sights and some of the few left older
pre-communist buildings. Hue was the Capital of Southern Vietnam under the Nguyen Dynasty which ruled from 1802 to 1945. The area has a large collection of stunningly beautiful tombs, pagodas, temples and palaces. The first places I saw were 3 stunning Tombs and their huge complexes. The money, time and resources the King's spent to build a place to be buried in baffles me. The tombs and their grounds and buildings are extraordinary though and so beautiful with huge calm ponds and serene landscaping. Too bad the dead emperor couldn't enjoy them.
I hit the Citadel next...a lot of it badly damaged by bombs during the French war and then again with the American(Vietnam to us) war...only 20 of it's 148 buildings survived. They are in the process of rebuilding and restoring it but today a lot of it lies in ruins.
Then we ended things off with a boat trip down the Perfume river.
BEAUTIFUL HUE COUNTRYSIDE FROM THE RIVER
Tomorrow I am taking a tour on Vietnam's DMZ( demilitarized zone) which was the area around the former border between North and South Vietnam during the war. I actually paid a bit more and booked a private tour by car through a company where your tour guide is a Vietnam War Veteran...who better to be my guide! I just couldn't take another big bus tour with 30 other people...I'm doing the same thing in 6 hours less time and I don't have to be shuttled into a million tourist places on the way there and back where we have to see how they make things and "oh, look! now you can buy the thing you just saw them make!" So painful...Over the last few weeks I've been to an incense factory, rice paper factory, rice noodle factory, coconut candy factory, conical hat factory, disabled artists factory...I'm probably leaving a few out...but no more!
I'm out to forage for food then off to bed. The food is really good here and I notice it changing quite a bit as I head north through the country with each city having a new specialty. It's funny how different the food is here from what you can order from a Vietnamese menu at home... the staple of rice vermicelli that everyone always orders doesn't not exist here in any form...it must be an entirely Americanized dish. Kind of like butter chicken...it's what everyone thinks of when they think of Indian food and yet it does not exist in India. Or like ginger beef! My favorite thing to order at home...stir fried seafood and veggies on crispy noodles I'm pleased to say does indeed exist here...and still yummy but a little different than the ones at home...if fact, no matter what you order it is totally different coming from different restaurants...you never quite know what you'll get. My noodles last night had giant tentacles in the seafood...they were yummy though! I think maybe they were squid. Tonight, I'm going in search of another new favourite food I have a hankering for...this is a middle Vietnam dish called Banh Zeo. It's a kinda crepe thing with bean sprouts, shrimp and veggies cooked hot and crispy then you break off pieces and wrap them in lettuce leaves and fresh herbs like basil, mint, cilantro, banana flowers and dip it in a peanut sauce...really yummy contrast between the hot crispy crepe and the cold lettuce and herbs.
Then I'm off to bed, I'm so exhausted by the long day in the heat, it's 35C here...NOT complaining. I am sticky though...yuck. Goodnight.
