The day after Christmas caught us in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam between 1802 and 1945. The emperors of the Nguyen dynasty ruled the destinies of the Vietnamese from Đại Nội Citadel. Spread over dozens of hectares, the domain is a tourist destination in itself.
In the citadel, you will discover the former house of the emperor, dozens of other small palaces, a replica of the royal theater, but also carefully arranged gardens. 200.000 VND is the ticket for one person, that is 40 lei. Although we would have liked to spend more time discovering information about the Nguyen Dynasty, the fatigue from the day and the lack of a guide meant that we only spent an hour in Đại Nội Citadel. My recommendation is to allocate around three hours for this objective, have sandwiches for a picnic with you and definitely benefit from the explanations of an official guide, which you find at the entrance.
Hue on scooters, through the organized chaos of traffic
I find it hard to believe that you can discover Hue city by yourself on a scooter even if you are an ace at driving two-wheeled vehicles. You need at least a day to adjust to traffic and a special school to understand traffic horns. Everyone seems to be going where they want, even in the opposite direction, priority is given according to the number of honks, and cars somehow make their way through the sea of motorcycles. One of the Vietnamese we befriended he explained to us that the rules of the traffic code only apply when he notices the people dressed in yellow uniforms, i.e. the traffic policemen. Otherwise, everyone goes as they can and makes sure they have room to pass.
I introduced you a little to the atmosphere of the road traffic in Hue to take you with me on the scooter with which I roamed the city. A well-dressed lady or young lady was in command. The white heeled sandals were matched with a string of pearls worn at the base of the neck. And Lore had the opportunity to be the passenger of the guide's wife who sometimes took us through places hidden from tourists.
The nine scooters rented by our group set off early in the morning for the first part of the tour, dedicated to the spiritual area. The tour leader was Thin, one of the few guides with five stars in reviews on the Tripadvisor platform, but also recommended by Lonely Planet. I will return at the end of this article with a special message that Thinh sent, with my help, to all Romanians.
We chose the four-hour Hue city tour. It cost 15 dollars/euro per person, but at the end of the trip we decided to pay 20 dollars/euro each and another 100.000 VND to the scooter driver because we felt great.
The first step was to Thien Mu Pagoda. I will leave the description from the official sites of the route points because it is much more correct and accurate.
We then headed to the royal tombs of Tu Duc, Minh Mang and Khai Dinh. Among the visits to the extraordinarily preserved historical monuments, like a true guide, Thinh counted the girls in the group and decided that sometimes you need a little shopping session even if we were on scooters.
At one point, the nine scooters left the urban area and entered a course suitable for off-road competitions. Through a thick forest, Thinh guided us to the pagoda where he studied until the age of 11 with Buddhist monks.
A monk in traditional brown robes, indicating that he is still a novice, studies from a book on the temple terrace. Smiling, he asked us to keep quiet because the rest of the monks are resting. The silence of the place urged you not to utter a single word, for fear of hearing your own breath. And here Thinh took advantage of the home field and beat us. For ten minutes he taught us how to breathe in order to be able to enter the meditative state and then, looking at several of us, he asked us to settle down in our daily lives. The hour spent in the temple in the middle of the forest, the stories about the war that decimated tens of thousands of Vietnamese across the country and then the trip to one of the bunkers used, according to the guide, by US special forces they completed the experience.
Traditional Christmas Wishes
The end of the tour was at Đại Nội Citadel which you read about at the beginning of this account. I promised that in the end I will return to the man Thinh, the one who carried us through all possible states during the tour. He knew that we celebrate Christmas and wanted to wish us in Romanian, and he taught me to say the same wish in Vietnamese. Here's what came out!
I wrote these lines in the middle of the night in my hotel room in Hanoi. A city with extraordinary energy, but which will have a separate description.
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