We really only had the afternoon to do our sightseeing in the city as we were set to leave the next morning for our next stop. So, after settling in to the Orchid Hotel and refreshing a bit, we went off to explore the sights.
Hue is a rather small city and truthfully much more than a day is not necessary. The main attraction in the city is the citadel. With a ticket purchase of 55,000VND, you can explore the grounds to your heart’s content.
In the citadel is the Forbidden Purple City. I’m not sure why it was forbidden nor did I see signs of purple, but I’m sure if I took the time to read up on the history these answers would be clear. Within the grounds there were many missing buildings with foundation rocks showing where the buildings would have been much like a number of castle grounds in Japan. The buildings that were still around had some really interesting carvings and designs on them.
On our way to the citadel, we stopped at the Dong Ba Market just across the river and had a quick look around. This area is apparently well-known for their cone-shaped hats with “poems” hidden on the inside that can be seen as shadows when in the proper lighting. It was pretty cool and I half considered buying one, but as I wasn’t really in the mood to negotiate, I passed it up. What would I do with a cone-shaped hat anyway?? This was perhaps the most interesting market for me to walk through. Perhaps it felt more like a place locals would go instead of tourists. It reminded me quite of the market in Cusco that I used to go to frequently.
We had a bit of a rest before dinner and since our hotel was in the main tourist area, there were plenty of restaurants to choose from. So, we decided on a place called Hot Tuna and had dinner on the roof. The waiter was pretty friendly and made me smile with his little laughs as he inquired about where we were from and how we liked Vietnam. He was studying in Hue to be a high school English teacher back in his hometown north of Hanoi. It was the only time we really had a decent conversation with a Vietnamese person, so that was pretty nice.
Afterwards, we had drinks at Brown Eyes for their long happy hour prices. It was a weirdly decorated bar, but the staff was nice and the drinks good.
Thus ended our day in Hue.
More to come…
-T
