Pete & Rach's Big Trip: Hue: 2-3 Nov 2013

At the Khai Dinh tomb in Hue

Rach says:

We arrived in Hue at around 6.30pm, with a sleeper train booked to Binh Thuan (for Mue Ne) the following evening at 22.24, so we had one full day to explore, which we had been told was 'enough' for Hue. I was really glad that we made the effort to go, as we had a really good day of sightseeing.

Pete says:

We hired a taxi and he took us to see two of the imperial tombs before dropping us at the Imperial

Inside the Imperial City

Flag Tower (Cot Co) at Hue Citadel

City, which was like the Forbidden City in Beijing except most of this one had been destroyed by USA in the war and is now undergoing a big restoration project. You can still see bullet holes in the walls.

Imperial City Gate

The weird thing about the first tomb we visited - Khai Dinh - was it looked like something from a thousand years ago but was actually built in 1920s. So it is not even as old as our old house in Crown Street! The Tu Duc tomb and the Imperial City were older (from 1800s) but still no older than castles in England despite the ancient appearance.

We also went to a war museum which wasn't that interesting, but had some tanks and helicopters outside which Vietnam had captured during the war from "The US Imperialist attackers".

The best thing about Hue was another Ganesh Indian restarant! Same group, same food and we got a discount for having a card from the one we visited in Hoi An.

Our hotel in Hue, Ngoc Binh, was the cheapest so far - only 7 pounds a night.