Forbidden Purple City Hue

As you all have heard, the weather has been chilly here in North Vietnam, so we decided to expedite the rest of our travels here and skip Hue so we can get back to the warm beaches of Thailand. The bus schedule worked out nicely however, still giving us an afternoon in Hue to see the Imperial City before our night bus departed for Hanoi at 5pm. We …

Hue was the ancient capital prior to the existence of Vietnam. We started out the morning by heading to the Citadel across the river. Within the walls of the Citadel is the Imperial Enclosure where the Emperor lived. And within the Imperial Enclosure is a Citadel within a Citadel within a Citadel named the Forbidden Purple City where only the …

After finally completing my suit I am able to move on from Hoi An. Although the 5 day respite from riding has been good, I am growing itchy to get back on the open road. Unfortunately I have lost all my travelling companions as Erich had moved on two days prior, eager to get to the north, and Shane had left with two other 'Brits' yesterday; but …

After an almost teary goodbye to Hoi An, which we loved so much, we boarded our first sleeper bus of the trip (though we didn't sleep). This was a very surreal experiance. Literally a bus with beds instead of seats! We managed to get two upper bunks together, and settled down for a 4 hour drive to Hue. This was one of the best journeys in the whole …

A little gem is an understatement walk in the forbidden purple city looking for anything purple for long enough your feet hurt and realise the sheare size of this place next time get a bike stop the rain and enjoy for a bit longer.

Hello

We left our hotel this morning at 10:00am, to make our way to the airport. We are flying to Hue, Vietnam today, this is a city in Central Vietnam. It was only a one hour flight, and when we stepped out of the plane it was raining, but it does seem to be warmer than it was in Hanoi.

Off the plane and straight into our …

So another journey on public transport and another tale to tell! We took the overnight train to Hue from Hanoi and our train journey ended up taking eighteen hours when it should have taken eleven hours. We were woken at 6 a.m. by a train announcement in Vietnamese. We were stationary for the best part of two hours when we started to see the …

Hi,

Today we woke up at around 8 AM, and packed our bags to leave for Hue, Vietnam. We left the hotel en route for the airport at 10 AM. The drive to the airport was 1 hour. When we got there, we checked in, went through security and got ready to go. We boarded our plane at 12 PM. It was a Vietnam Airlines Airbus A321, a medium haul very …

5 February 2005 (Saturday Afternoon)
The moment we alighted from the bus that had just pulled into the bus station in Hue, we were surrounded by touts trying to persuade us to go to the accommodations that paid them commissions. Passengers with reserved accommodations got away easily but we could not as we had no reservation and not knowing …

After 9 hours (at 5am-ish) we had arrived in Hanoi, and had an hour and a half wait to get the train down to Hue.

Hanoi station was pretty quiet, but some people were starting to arrive for early morning trade and trains. I went to find the bathroom, armed with obligatory hand sanitizer, tissues, and in this instance a toothbrush and …

... particular place only to read that it had been levelled by bombing and we were stood right on top of it. The forbidden purple city, a citadel within the citadel, where the emporer only allowed himself and a few servants to be is now filled with scores ...

... Emperor Gia Long. This was used by the Emperor for all official functions in the front outer area. Within the inner "Forbidden Purple City" the Emperor had his private life. Only his servants were allowed inside that were eunuchs (you read it correct), ...

... perimeter is 10 kilometers long, entirely surrounded by a moat.  Inside there's a canal that helps to protect the Forbidden Purple City.  Sounds pretty intriguing, huh?  It was a place reserved only for emperor, his royal concubines and a ...

... Imperial festival, filled with parades, performances, fireworks and a special "Royal Feast" inside the Forbidden Purple City at night. "I can't believe it-- Vietnam preserves China's culture better than China does." Eva was to repeat this to me ...

... a little fake new buildings with scaffold around them). Erica Edit:  It was quite upsetting to see the video showing what the Forbidden Purple City used to look like, it was beautiful, destroyed by war. A little brief but we did and saw a lot ...

... . That afternoon we went to the huge moated Citidel in the city centre and walked through the huge gardens, halls and forbidden purple city of the Gia Long Emperor. After a full days cultural sightseeing, beers (30p a bottle) were required and we even ...

... of French officials to keep them in line (some rebel Emperors were exiled to French-controlled Reunion or Algeria). The Forbidden Purple City is essentially a copy of the Forbidden City in Beijing, only smaller and mostly destroyed by fire and war. ...

... , even though it was still raining. We walked in the rain to the city's Citadel and followed the old walls to the Forbidden Purple City. There was a huge flag tower opposite and some old war cannons. Entering on one of the side gates, as the middle ...

... the citadel and Imperial City, taking in the impressively ornate ancient structures. At the very centre of the Imperial City lies the Forbidden Purple City; access to this was only allowed to the King. Unfortunately it looked more like the forgotten ...

... in the war in 1968. What remains is the Thai Hoa palace and a couple of reception halls. The intriguing sounding Forbidden Purple City (sounds like something Elton John would build) had been more or less levelled, leaving a pretty anticlimactic series of ...