Hue

WARNING: Long Post Ahead...

Vietnam couldn't have planned a bigger historical tourist attraction if it had tried. We've seen plenty of historical sites but Hue definitely takes the cake for number and range of historical attractions in one city. Although it only served as the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945) it's chock block full of temples, pagodas, tombs and palaces. Hue even boasts one of the oldest schools in Vietnam that Ho Chi Minh attended for one year. Apparently, during the construction of Hue, eight villages were relocated and 10,000 people were employed to build more than 300 royal buildings.

On our first day we took on the sweltering heat and biked around the ancient citadel and palace grounds. Many of the buildings within the palace have been destroyed by fire and bombings during the "American War" but surprisingly the brick-defensive wall has survived. Here we are standing in front of the main flag tower.

Across from the main flag tower is Ngo Mon Gate which is the main entrance into the imperial city. The gate itself has five entrances: the central doorway that the emperor used, two doorways on either side for mandarins (not the oranges har har), and the doorways on the most outer edges were for the royal elephants.

Strangely (or maybe not) the area where the residential palaces, quarters for the "nine ranks of royal concubines", and "pleasure pavilions" stood is called The Forbidden Purple City. I'm sure there's some superstitious/auspicious/lost in translation meaning to this name but before seeing the now manicured lawn that has replaced the royal abode, I imagined this as a lost Beatles album cover: a photo of a giant pool party involving the Emperor and his concubines promoting one love, all against the backdrop of swirling psychedelic colours.

There was nothing purple in the whole city. Actually the emperor's colour is yellow. Everything royal is painted yellow.

Anyway, we were probably most impressed with the nine dynastic urns. Cast in bronze, each urn is dedicated to an emperor. The largest weighs in at 2600 kg and is dedicated to Gia Long (the first Nguyen emperor).

The next few days we spent visiting the royal mausoleums and Thien Mu Pagoda. Although previous Vietnamese dynasties buried their emperors in ancestral villages the Nguyen built royal mausoleums. Sometimes it took years to find the proper location and even then, lakes and hills were added to "improve" the location. Restricted by time, heat, money and mild waning interest we only managed to visit two of the seven mausoleums.

Emperor Tu Duc's Tomb (fourth Nguyen emperor). Fun facts: He was the longest reigning Nguyen emperor and had 104 wives but no children. He had a pretty impressive mausoleum (that he apparently enjoyed for sixteen years before his death) that included extensive grounds, man-made lakes for fishing, and gardens to inspire his poetry.

Ari hiding in the shade

Interestingly the exterior wall of the tomb is decorated with shards of broken pottery.

Minh Mang's mausoleum was more well preserved/restored. More fun facts: Although his Queen died at age 17, he fathered 142 children with 33 wives and 107 concubines. The mausoleum is located in the middle of a forest – a location that took 14 years to find.

To round out our Hue historical experience we visited the Thien Mu Pagoda. Built on the site of an ancient Cham temple, it became well known after one of the resident monks protested against President Diem's regime. Thich Quang Duc drove to Saigon to protest the regime's repression of Buddhism and upon arriving, he took the lotus position and set himself on fire.