October 2, Hoi An to Hue, Vietnam
We said goodbye to Hoi An and drove several hours north to Hue. In the afternoon, we did a tour of the Imperial City of Hue.
Since we were a little slower in the morning, our usual breakfast partners were already there and almost finished, but we still had time to chat. After they left, it occurred to Melody and me that the music was familiar. Then it dawned on us that it sounded a lot like that song on an infinite loop in the Ho Chi Minh City restaurant. It was a different song, but I remembered hearing it the day before. At least it was more in the background.
Driving to Hue
We boarded our bus after breakfast and headed out of Hoi An. Before long, we were in the southern part of Da Nang and started seeing a lot of statues for sale in front of stores. This was because we were near Ngu Hanh Son, a set of marble mountains.
We then got into Da Nang itself and caught glimpses of Cau Rong, the bridge that looks like a dragon. It was hard to get a good photo of it, but it was quite striking in person. We also saw the Tran Thi Ly Bridge, which is a very graceful cable stay bridge.
Bao explained that there are mountains between Da Nang and Hue, and since the weather wasn’t terrible, we would be driving up through the Hai Van Pass. If the weather were bad, we would have gone through the Hai Van Tunnel, which is almost 4 miles long.
The views were great as we were going up, but just as we got to the top, the fog started rolling in, so we couldn’t see very far. We stopped anyway at the rest stop at the top of the pass so we could stretch our legs. They did have restrooms, but the vendors were very aggressive about wanting you to buy something if you used them. Also at the rest stop are old French bunkers from the years of war.
The next stop was at a coffee shop after we had descended back to sea level. There was a view of Lang Co Bay, and a few of us walked out onto a sandy outcrop to take a closer look.
Since we would have arrived a bit early to check into our hotel, we went to a restaurant in Hue to have lunch. After that, it was off to the hotel to check in and unpack.
Imperial City of Hue
The Imperial City of Hue is located within a citadel. Hue used to be the imperial capital of Vietnam. Most of the buildings were destroyed during the Vietnam War, but the site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is undergoing restoration.
The royal family lived within the Imperial City, and everyone else lived far away; we saw gates past which those people lived. There was another set of walls that the King lived in; even his wives and concubines lived in a different area next to his palace.
One of the things that Bao pointed out is the Imperial City was built taking feng shui into account. For example, even though entry gates could flow directly into the building entrances, there’s a wall between them because there shouldn’t be a direct path between the gate and entrance.
It was very evident when we were in the King’s section since the reconstructed palace was huge and had very ornate decorations.
While we were walking around the Imperial City, rain varied between light/nonexistent to heavy, so there were a lot of umbrellas opening and closing.
Once we were done within the citadel walls, we rode the bus back to the hotel. It was one of those days where people felt like they would like to do their own dinners, so Melody and I went to a local spot. We were wondering what the difference between two items was on the menu, so the owner got two bowls, once with a little bit of noodles, and one with a little bit of rice. We decided to get one of each (both otherwise the same), and they were great.
We stopped by a café to get a quick dessert, then went back to the hotel to finish the night.
