Hue, on the Perfume River

Posted under Southeast Asia 2009

Took a bus from Hoi An to Hue, which was the old capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty. Now this was the touristy bus, and even had some sleepy type accommodation for the weary traveler. The alternative bus travel would be the chicken bus, which I believe, gives preference to families travelling with chickens or goats or maybe pot-bellied pigs.

 

 I’m glad that I wasn’t called upon to drive our bus, as only an individual raised in the environment, or perhaps someone with a death wish, would attempt the traffic. Arrived in good form at our “new” hotel, and wow it was actually new. Not only new, but very comfortable, and under forty bucks.

 

Other than the usual shopping type adventures, the big day market and the obligatory street vendors, the majority of our time was spent at the tourist haunts. Had a private boat trip on the Perfume River. Don’t ask how it got the name “perfume”. I was afraid to ask and we were there. Well, in fact, the river did not look all that bad. Much better than many of the rivers that we have encountered. Now back to my story. We travelled up river for about an hour to visit a Buddhist temple and pagoda. There is a difference between temples and pagodas, but I am uncertain what is what. The pagoda here was several stories tall and had many roofs, more in the tradition of Chinese construction. Considering that the Chinese spent several hundred years trying to gain control of much of this area, I guess the construction is not that surprising. The event that sort of put this temple on the map happened in 1963, and those of you approaching senility along with the rest of us may recall the event. As a protest against religious suppression, one of the monks drove himself down to Saigon in the communal car. Upon his arrival, he exited the vehicle and sat down in the street, dowsed himself with gasoline and became a crispy critter. His memory is held with some reverence, and the old car is on display at the temple. From the temple, we returned downstream to see a small, floating, fishing village. It is more like a large cluster of semi derelict boats that never leave their moorings. People live aboard, and fish from the deck. They are able to catch skanky little fish for food and profit. Very little profit methinks, as no one appears to be moving up in the world. Our boat then took us back to our area and dropped us off. About four hours all told, and about twenty-five bucks. Heck, I think that it costs me that much to just flash up the engines in good old “Tawny Port”.

 

A new day, a new tour — we get a view of the Citadel.  The Citadel was built along the lines of “the old city” in Chiang Mai, but is newer, and in much finer condition. It is comprised of an outer wall made of bricks, and is some 17 kms long, having fortified gates every kilometer. The actual citadel is another walled enclosure, inside the larger compound. This enclosure, also made of brick, is surrounded by a man made moat. The citadel was for the ruling monarch. The area between the moat and the larger compound was for the minions, the military and the buddies of the ruler. They could live in this area, which offered considerably more safety than that afforded the mere mortals outside the walls, not to mention a rather good buffer zone for the ruler. The entire structure is very complete, and even suffered minimal damage during the Vietnam War.

 

Next leg Sapa, nosebleed country, and the highest in Vietnam.