Hue - Day 1
Well, we make it in one piece at around 11am. We even managed to get some sleep, which was a bonus. The mattresses were hard, the temperature was low, the train was rocky, but not super fast, so that was manageable. There was a moment where I thought I'd actually arrived in my hell though; a loud service announcement explaining how to use the rubbish bins, in both languages, on repeat, 6:30am. After the 4th time through, I thought this was it. This is my life now. But thankfully someone managed to pull the plug on the thing mid-way through.
As we arrive in Hue we can see its raining, as we expected. It rains for pretty much 3 months straight from December to February. That gives you an idea of the diversity of this country. Dry season in Hanoi, a slow overnight train later and its wet season.
We walk in the rain to our hotel. Its not too far and we get to walk along the river. I'm already regretting not getting the Banh Bao Chay (steamed buns with pork, and some had egg!) that looked enticing at the train station from the many vendors.
We rock up to The White Lotus hotel, hoping to get an early check-in. No dice. OK, lets at least get a coffee, dry off and get a plan.
We find a place that does all the hits in terms of Hue dishes, of which there are many. We wander in the rain, duck into a couple of pharmacies for some cold and flu drugs (Courts has got a decent cold going and Jeff is feeling one come on as well).
The restaurant has a nice open setup, which we haven't come across so far in Vietnam. The waiter points out all the local dishes that we should try. We go for Banh Beo (steamed rice cakes), Banh Khoai (crispy pancakes with shrimp and tofu) and Nem Lui (grilled pork on lemongrass skewers like we had in Hanoi). All were great and have us feeling a bit better. But alas, we need to head back into the rain back to the hotel.
We check-in with just enough time to dry off before heading straight out for the tour of imperial city. We meet our guide inside the first wall of the city, just over the mote. She is a bit tricky to understand, and its raining, so its going to take some energy today. We also have a 64 year old Italian lady who is bringing some chaotic energy to the tour, plus a constant plume of vapour from her vape. Let's see how we go.
The city was built in 1803 and housed the imperial family (including the hundreds of concubines and the children) until the end of World War II. It served as Vietnam's capital during this time. It was mainly for show while the French were ruling though, since the King didn't really have any power at that time.
The city is huge, and on some prime Hue real estate. Whilst the buildings are impressive and there was so much to explore, it wasn't really hitting home for us, due to a few reasons:
a) 1800 isn't really that old, b) we know and learn nothing about the kings (were they any good?) c) it wasn't that long before the French came and made all this redundant anyway.
We were surprised to hear that there is still a lot of prayers going up for these old kings, including during parliament sittings. It could be the constant rain and the fact we are wet through, but we are having a hard time buying into a lot of this. Jeff wants to know more about how patriarchal Vietnam is to this day. The short answer is "very", it seems. The long answer about "why", is impossible to unpack. Our guide got very hung-up on trying to explain that boys are often called "Diamond". OK, but why? Because diamonds are special. Yea yea, I get that - OK, forget it actually, let's move on.
We are drenched through. Courts is sick and Jeff not far behind. We get our guide to give us the speed tour and end it early. We jump in a taxi and aim straight for a hot shower. We both hit a wall here. Its still raining and we can't bring ourselves to go out again tonight. We need a recovery evening, so its room service and trashy movies tonight. 9 hours sleep. We go again tomorrow.
