Hue - Day 110-111
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2008
1
79
251
Trip End
Ongoing
Hue,
Vietnam
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Haven't been on a plane for 2 months but today I flew to Hue which is half way been Saigon and Hanoi. The plane was delayed for an hour due to a severe thunder storm, but I finally arrived in Hue mid-afternoon. Caught a bus from the airport to central Hue and found a guesthouse called Phong Nha which is in great central location. My room has a TV again which is handy as I can watch Euro 2008 in the evenings. Probably only going to stay here for 2 nights and then move to Hoi An which is another UNESCO world heritage city like Hue.
Visited the Citadel this afternoon which follows the same symmetrical layout as the forbidden city in Beijing. The citadel was build by Emperor Gia Long in the early nineteenth-century and did consist of 148 buildings but only 20 remain due to fire and the Vietnam war
Riverside View 1
. It's a shame that the place is so derelict, it must of been an amazing sight in it's heyday. There are lotus flowers in the moat system surrounding the complex and big Koi carp. Also, hundreds of Bonsai surround some of the remaining buildings. Anyone that knows me well would realise I got rather excited when I saw these little trees. Just hope my Bonsai at home are doing well!Day 111 - 12/06/08
Dragon boat trip on the Perfume river today, which stopped at many of the royal mausoleums from the Nguyen dynasty along the way.
First we stopped at the Thien Mu Pagoda. In 1963 a monk from this monastery went to Saigon in his Austin car to protest against the repression of monks by the then president. When he arrived in Saigon, he sat down in the road in the lotus position, dowsed himself in petrol and set fire to himself. Probably one of the most famous photos taken in the 20th century was of the monk sat down calmly, burning in the road. His blue Austin car which was in the background of the photo is now on display at the Pagoda. Thinking about it, many iconic photos of the 20th century where taken in Vietnam. There's the photo of a naked young girl running down the road burnt after an American napalm attack
Riverside View 2
. A photo capturing the moment of death of a man who had been shot in head by a pistol. All very emotional and horrific photos showing the pain and suffering of the Vietnamese people of the years.During the day we stopped at the Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh tombs. These tombs where build by different Emperors over a century as places to relax and contemplate as well as leaving a legacy of their reign and being a place to be buried.
Also visited the Hon Chen temple but I decided not to go in as it didn't look as impressive as the other sites we visited in the day.
