Tomb of Tu Duc Hue

We had heard it was still the rainy season but we've been really lucky with the weather so far. However when we arrived at Hué the rain finally caught up to us… It wasn't too bad, just some light showers and not that often.
We arrived early in the morning as usual and had breakfast at the Hué Backpackers Hostel. This hostel is nothing …

We heard great reviews about the motorcycle tours organised around Hue, not only from Lonely Planet, but also from tourists we met along the way. It was therefore a priority of our journey to have such an experience. Just some back ground information, most hotels in Hue offer bus/boat tours of the city, which range from around 80,000 VND (4 USD) …

Salimos finalmente desde Hanoi....hacia el sur, en busca del esquivo sol y el calor. Tomamos el bus cama que compramos en la capital y cuando lo abordamos...la verdad es que sus camas nos dieron mucha risa cuando las vimos: eran de porte similar al de una asiento de clase económica de un avión y reclinadas casi completamente, sin posibilidad de …

Hue, the rainy city.

We arrived in the rain, luckily the hotel had sent a car to pick us up. The hotel seemed nice enough when we arrived. Then we noticed the damp on the walls, and realised that it was damp EVERYWHERE! The hotel staff were obsessive about trying to get us to book tours and travel through them, and every time we passed the …

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 …

Another excellent breakfast at the HueNino, before borrowing one of their bikes and heading out into the Vietnam traffic.I headed out of town, and it was nice to get away from all the hustle and bustle for a while. I head for the Tomb of Tu Doc - one of the emperors.
His final resting place is a very peaceful place, with sculpted gardens and …

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 …

Hello from a VERY rainy Hue!!!

So we arrived after a 12 hour overnight bus...amazing! I ACTUALLY slept! Got a good solid 8 hours on that one! So we arrived at the Backpacker Hostel and this is where we finally managed to meet up with Emily again. We met Emily at the Elephant Nature park so it was like seeing an old friend again! So after …

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 …

I know, in the first instance, the title seems a little boring, but there is a method in there, you see, Hue is pronounced Hway (accompanied by a forceful exhalation), therefore the title rhymes you see.

The overnight train from Hanoi to Hue, we had been preparing ourselves for this journey almost from the beginning, having been warned …

... merges with the sky and it feels cold and depressing. A few kilometres further we stop at the royal tomb of Tu Duc, who was a poet and king of Vietnam from 1847 to 1883. His Mausoleum is spectacular, reminiscent of chinese palaces we have seen on our ...

We rented a motorbike again to get out to the tomb of Tu Duc, about 6 km from town.  It wasn't a particularly interesting day, so I'll just tell you about the site itself.  I like to alternate between useless narrative and pertinent ...

... event was that this place was teeming with birds and we'd forgotten to take the binoculars with us.   Our last tomb was the tomb of Tu Duc.    This was supposed to be *the* tomb to see in Hue but it was actually our least favorite. ...

... of the policies of President Ngo Din Diem, which was famous around the world.  Further down river we visited the Tomb of Tu Duc, set amidst frangipani trees and lotus ponds.  Tu Doc was the longest reigning emperor of any Nguyen monarch.  ...

... Vietnam.  Scattered along the Perfume River, the tombs are situated atop hills of lush green trees.  Walking the grounds of the largest tomb, of King Minh Mang, I was reminded much of my visit to Japan last year and how I enjoyed visiting the ...

... day we took a boat tour down the scenic Song Huong (Perfume River) and visited a couple of Royal Tombs:  Tomb of Tu Duc and Tomb of Minh Mang.  During the trip we also visited the Thien Mu Pagoda.  An interesting point here is that one of ...

... Hue i hire another motorcycle (hey now i'm one of the locals riding around in there crazy traffic) and visit the Tomb of Tu Duc. set amongst Frangipani's it is quite relaxing to spend the day wonder around. no-one knows where exsactly Tu Duc ...

... . We had heard the second tomb was similar and so we opted out if this visit before we joined in again at the third one, the tomb of Tu Duc This one was far more impressive than the first. This was partly helped by its setting on top of a hill (so it ...

... to rent a motorbike as there was no way I was willing to bike all the way out to the tombs. We went to go see the tomb of Tu Duc, apparently the most beautiful of the few that around the city. It was set in the middle of this pine forest on a lake and ...

... . It worked out really well since the car had A/C and it was another hot day. Our first sight that we visited was the Tomb of Tu Duc. He was one of the emperors in the early 1800's and the tomb complex was festooned with frangipani and pine trees and ...